About one month ago, we were at the local auction, and it's basically this large area of stands with everything you can imagine for sale, some of it is crap other things are really pretty, like huge, detailed rugs and such.
But anyway! We had heared turtles were sold here, and when we asked for directions to "the turtle place" the security guard replied with, "oh, for the turtle soup? The shop is that way." When we got to the tiny shop it was filled with tanks of all kinds, some with koi, others with exotic fish I'd never seen before, and right there in the front by the cashier was this 20 gallon long tank filled with probably 12 RES...
The turtles were all about 3-5 inches long, and I believe ours is probably 4 inches, and his shell isn't very dark, so I'm sure he is growing rapidly due to the "shrip diet" they fed them. "Only shrip, that's what we feed them." Yeeea, that didn't please me any, or the fact that she said "They'll do fine in a 10 gallon" and I told her that seemed unfair to me.
We looked through to find the healthiest one, one that was alert, free of puffy eyes and a good hard shell, and found one who seemed sweet at the time. We had him boxed up and I bought him and we got him out of there as soon as possible. (We assume it's a male because his tail comes out and the vent? is far down the tail, like 3/4 of the way down the tail. Is this pretty reasonable thinking?)
My boyfriend took off his sweater and mushed it into the box; we feared that since WE were freezing, the turtle was probably far more cold. He loved it, he dug into the folds of the sweater and went to sleep.
Anyway, so that is how I became the owner, or maybe slave to my RES. We spoil him. We went through tons of names but Oliver, Olly for short, seemed to fit best.
He wasn't too shy either, he walked around the floor and didn't hide too much. He never opened his mouth to us until a few days after we saved him. He hasn't bitten US but he has bitten a towel...we were experimenting to see if he would even snap his jaws shut...he did. It looked painful.
So! That is my introduction. I'm Dannielle by the way. I'm currently studying to be a veterinary Technician and I just got a new job at the Bradshaw Veterinary Clinic, one of the largest hospitals in Northern California, 24 doctors! I love exotic animals especially, and have kept a wide range of reptiles in the past few years. I have a lot of questions and look forward to talking with all of you on the other forums.
