Hi! Introduce yourselves here. :: New RES Owner

[Mach529]

Hello all, New to owning a turtle. My boys came home with one and after looking into it, it is not native to our area we decided to keep it as a pet. She is a very gentle turtle and is actually very social, to my suprise. She has a habitat that we built her around the pond in our back yard, Nice size pond and a good area to bask in, usually her basking is interupted by our Husky who is all so interested in her and into the pond she goes. Read through the info on Redearedslider.com, found it to be very informative. Looking forward to chatting with you all, and enjoying our newest member of the family our RES, Miss Turtley, Named by my boys.

[nemo lover]

Welcome. I am new to the forum, but everyone is very nice.

[missibsu]

Welcome!

Keep an eye on the husky when s/he is near. Dogs can be enemy number one when it comes to keeping your turtle outside. Raccoons and other animals can also be a problem. Make sure your set up is preditor proof. Also, RES are good escape artists, so make sure that she can't get out.

How big is she? Can we see some pics?!

[sonyj]

Welcome to the forum.

[Mach529]

I posted that we found the turtle and we kept her as a pet and have provided her with a comfoprtable habitat, we thought that because She is not native to the area that we were saving her assumed she was someones pet that they either discarded or lost. We thougth we were doing the right thing, and it made my son thrilled for he loves turtles and we were looking into getting him one anyway. I since have found out that they were introduced into NY areas. were we wrong for taking this turtle in under the assumption that we were helping her? people in the other post feel that we should free her and buy one from a store.
Please note that we found her in the road not real close to a water source.

[steve]

Hi, RES are not native to NY but there are undoubtedly here. How long have you had her? How big is she? How responsive was the turtle towards people? Was she receptive or did she shy away?

[TinySlider2]

Hello and Welcome!

[Mach529]

We have had her about 8 weeks, She doesnt shy away really, doesnt come running to us either, but over all I believe she is happy in her habitat. She has layed 5 eggs already since we had her and she has room to bask and lay eggs. I will post pictures of her area. The husky and her seem to have a mutual respect for one another, though we wouldnt leave them alone together. She is eating and has a nice filtered aerated water source. plenty of sun. Water temps are good. I think she is content.

[marisa]

Welcome. I would keep her and give her a good life.

[samandnelly]

Me, too. Normally it's not great to catch a turtle from the wild, expecially if you're planning on putting it with another turtle, but in this case I think keeping her would be the best idea.

[Mach529]

Thanks for all of the kind words. Her belly has a little damage when we found her so we will keep her and I think she is thrilled with her new home and life.