Hi! Introduce yourselves here. :: Hi turtle talkers

[cribeiro]

One morning when I went to the backyard to check them up, one of the "supposed" girls was missing!
At first I looked in the bushes and inside a little shed where we kept some bricks and wood… she wasn’t there!

Then I recheck those places and any place suitable for her to hide. Then I started to get worried.

Although the backyard wasn’t that big, was surrounded by walls and seemed turtle proofed I still began to imagine the little creature wandering somewhere outside.

At this moment I decided that before leaving the backyard I would check every inch of it, and I MEAN EVERY INCH!

The search took an hour or so but I did find her… the little turtle was buried in the lawn!? How on earth did she do it? She wasn’t that big but nevertheless it looked almost impossible for her to get where she was….In order to take her out I had to cut some grass because she was beneath it…It was like watching a magician being taken out of a sac that is inside a box that is locked from the outside! Pretty amazing!

Luckily she didn’t repeat that trick ever again.


Next episode: Another dark day

[emma]

That is lucky! Wow, i have never heard of a turtle doing that before! Mine wont even leave the water when i have them outside, except to bask!

[Aqua8]

WOW amazing find!!:D

[TXGUY]

awwwwwwwwwww, glad you found her
I'm ready for next episode

[SpotsMama]

They never cease to amaze. It was so good of you to keep hunting until you found her - otherwise she probably would have been stepped on eventually.

[untsmurf]

I'm glad that your yard was fenced in so well, and that you took so much time to look for the little one.

[Blue Flamingo]

Wow what cool stories!!

[cribeiro]

Sarapica and Miguel hibernated and the RES – as I read in some books I finally acquired - did also. I always thought that animals that hibernate retain fat during the active months and need to use it, at least to some extent, by hibernating. By avoiding hibernation I thought I was harming them.

So I left them in the backyard. The temperature dropped, Sarapica as usual disappeared into the bushes and the three RES stopped eating and vanished into the bottom of the pond.
The pound was made with a black material and after some days it was impossible to see the bottom.

Sometimes, if the day was warmer, they would emerge. But for several weeks that stayed out of sight.

Although I left them outside I wasn’t feeling very comfortable with it.
This was the first time and after some thinking I decided to abort the hibernation.
As I put my hands in the cold water I touched a lifeless limb…it was the male.

The other two were fine but for him there wasn’t anything else that I could do.

Some days after putting the other RES indoors, they began to eat normally.

Notes: Till this day (10 plus years afterwards) I kept this routine – Let them by themselves outside until December and than mount a tent over the pound and put some heaters to raise the water temperature until spring.


Next episode: More RESidents

[TXGUY]

AWWWWWWWWWWWW sorry about the boy RES,

[Danni]

Awww so cute , My god look small tho

[SpotsMama]

So sorry about the male RES. I can tell that even today after 10 years you still feel sad at the memory. It's not uncommon for RES to fail to come out of hibernation even when they're living in the wild - it's a difficult time for them.

How marvolous that the females survived. You must love them a lot to go to so much trouble to make sure they are safe.

So....there will be more RESidents? Can't wait to hear!

[cribeiro]

@ spotsmama - As their keeper ,I try very hard to provide them the best environment possible (I recently made them a new outdoor habitat in my front yard). Sometimes mistakes are made or even uncontrollable events take place and bad things happen. I think that’s part of life but it’s always hard to loose a little fellow.


As time passed I got a pleasant surprise, one of the presumably female RES was a he and began to act like one – long claws and a fixation for face stroking girls.

And things kept rolling on the bright side, as afterwards, came an offer to take care of two female RES that were too big to live indoors. The former owner lived in a small apartment and to be honest, wasn’t very interested in keeping them anymore. The male was very thrilled!

Next episode: Male trouble

Please, let me introduce you to Dalia, one of the "then" new residents.


A little information:
Age - 15 plus years (estim)
Weight - 1.1 Kg ( 2.42 pounds)
Length (SCL) - 19 cm (7.48 in)

[SpotsMama]

Glad to meet you Dahlia. What a nice healthy looking girl you are! Your colors are beautiful

[larqw]

Wow, 90 years old! She doesn't look a day over 20 hahaha

[emma]

You have very nice looking turtles!