Hi! Introduce yourselves here. :: Hello From Central Kentucky!!!

[Mnuemonix]

Hello one and all…LOOOONNNNGGGG time turtle owner, first time posting….I just happened upon your great community here while googling trying to find out more about my good little green buddy.

I’ve had my turtle going on close to 20 years now…I am 26 years old, and I got my turtle as a child before I even knew how to ride a bike…Somewhere around 7 years old, I don’t remember exactly.

And to be honest, I’m not really sure what species he is, or even if he really is a he (for all I know I’ve given the poor thing a gender complex calling it a he for 20 years when it’s actually a she)…I do think that he (force of habit at this point) is a slider turtle, but don’t know if it would be a red or yellow Slider….The pet store that I got him from told us he was an “African Slider,” but every search that I’ve done for that name yields no results….And pictures I’ve seen of both red and yellow sliders don’t really look exactly like mine, so I really don’t know….And that pet store was shut down a month after we got my turtle for cruelty to animals. And actually in the way that the store told us to care for him, we almost killed him the first month we owned him.

Thank god another BETTER pet store told us how to properly care for him, and actually gave us a free cache of supplies to help us save him….And as I’ve stated before he’s been with me for almost 20 years now…He’s been with me through most of elementary school, middle school, high school, college, and now he’s with me and my wife (we celebrate our first wedding anniversary in a few weeks), and we’ve lived in 3 different cities.

I’ve read through most of this site’s care sections, and every time I read one of those I get scared and nervous that I’m not caring for my little buddy properly, but I suppose I’m doing something right.

I’m not sure how big his aquarium is, but it’s bottom is lined with rocks (not sure of the actual name of the type of rocks), he has a halved log where he can sleep underneath in the water fully submerged, or climb on top of to lounge around, and it also is able to hold a water filter which I change bi-weekly (along with a full water change when I do). I let him out of his enclosure whenever I change his water, and allow him to explore my apartment until I am done, giving him some exercise.

Just last night I gave him his first treat of the warm season – fish! Which is always fun for him.

Well, I suppose now I’ve gone on a bit too much, but I saw this section of the forums and decided to introduce myself!

[Pugness]

Wow thats crazy style 20 years, is he slowing down at all or are there twenty more years in him you should post some pics so we can figure out what kind of turt you have.

[Mnuemonix]

He's just as active as he was the day we got him (before we made him sick that is)....When I take him out of his tank when I clean sometimes it takes me a while to find him because if there's no sun to bask in, he gets into everything.

The way I picked him out is that the pet store guy put about 6 turtles on the floor, and he darted away from the pack while the others just sat there.

He was a little clumsy last night when I put the fish in the tank because it's his first of the season, and he had been sleeping all afternoon.

I took a short video of his first lunge with digital camera.

I'll take some shots of him tonight when I get off work and post them.

[Pugness]

haha, before I got my black knobbed i was picking out RES i did the same thing, i picked the one that was the most active, it was jumping, biting scratching everyone elses and iw as like damn ill take that one.

[sonyj]

Welcome to the forum. How big is he(shell from tip to tip not including curve)? We'd love to see pics of him. I'd be interested in knowing exactly what type of turtle he is too, maybe seeing a pic would help. Have you checked out Austin's Turtle Page? They have lots of pictures of different species on there.

[Mnuemonix]

Oddly enough, I have been to ATP .

But still, there are minor differences between all the pictures of turtles that I see and mine...Mostly in the shell...I've seen a few pics that could ALMOST match mine, but not quite...I'll definitely have to post some pictures tonight when I get home from work.

As far as his size...Hmmm.....He might bet somewhere between 5 and 6 inches...I'll have to measure him too .

[TNTurtles]

I'm almost betting its a he, if it were a she, she would have wanted to lay eggs by now

[Mnuemonix]

Okay, I took a few pics tonight, and I'm going to try to post them in the Photo Gallery....Wish me luck!!!

[x3jobeccax3]

Long claws? Thick tail? if "he" has those "he's" either actually male or you've called "him" "he" for so long that you've turned the poor thing into a cross gender.

[sonyj]

Long claws? Thick tail? if "he" has those "he's" either actually male or you've called "him" "he" for so long that you've turned the poor thing into a cross gender.

Some other species of turtles' sex characteristics differ slightly from RES and he's still unsure of the exact species that his is. Most all species will have the thicker tail with the cloaca located closer to the tip. Sliders, some Maps, Painteds and Cooters will show the longer claws in the males, but not all turtles exhibit this trait.