Hi! Introduce yourselves here. :: Hi from Shorty and mom!

[Shorty's mom]

Hello everyone! My name is Nichole and I live in Ohio. I am a stay-at-home mom to two children plus my slew of pets. I've had my res for two years now and love her to death! She is 4 or 4 1\2 inches and such a character. She loves our cats and will follow them around when they walk in front of her tank.

We bought Shorty at a outdoors flea market(sold illegally, I now know). She was about the size of a quarter. The lady I bought her from knew nothing about res's. She told me I could put her in with fish and that a one gallon tank would be just fine for her. Plus she was feeding her box turtle food. We kept her in that tank for few months till I bought her a ten gallon tank. She is now in a 30gal till I can find a 100+ gal tank for her in my price range.

[marisa]

Hello and Welcome. It sounds like you've been doing well by Shorty, and that 100-gallon tank would be great to get. (If you haven't, try the classifieds, flea markets or garage sales for a used one.)

What is the rest of Shorty's set-up like now?

BTW, Box Turtle Food is OK to give occasionally--it's lower in protein. But only as part of her overall diet.

[3walcks]

hello and welcome. we to got our baby res the illegally way. same here mt friend not knowing that they were not alloud to be selling them bought one for my 3 year old and her 3 kids. They to told her that they would not get hardly any bigger ( kermie is like in between a quarter and a half dollar in size real tiny ) and that we didnt need to much for it just keep it in the small reptile tank thing and change the water and feed it pellets thats it.
we had no idea what we were getting into . went straight to the pet shop to find out that first of all they are illegal to sell because of the salomanella thing then we find out that no they get big and no you need all these lights, filters ect... never thought that there would be that much to it. the fda ended up shutting the place down and suggesting that anybody who got one of these baby turtles let them go in the wild ( i know like any of those little turtles would live, they might as well of told us to smaash it with a rock ! ) never the less we kept our kermie and got what we needed and we just love him. my son just loves watchin him . just wanted to let you know you are not the only one who kinda got swindled when you got your little guy so welcome and hello !

[pretty.rock.machine]

If you buy them under four inches it's illegal. The place I bought Sid from made it so you couldn't buy the turtle without buying the set up (tank, UV light, heat lamp, food). My baby is under four. I wasn't too worried about it though because owner of store works there everyday and is a reptile genius! He takes in rescue cases. They have a camian there (small crocodile basically), montor lizards, iguanas, and even some furry ones! They aren't for sale though because they are rescue animals. All the animals get upmost care. I even called up there the other day and asked some questions and they were very helpful.

Welcome, BTW. I'm glad to see somebody who cares about their pets well being and rescued it from an odd setting.

[STRAYKINGFISHER]

montor lizards, iguanas, and even some furry ones!

Furry iguanas???

[pretty.rock.machine]

No. They had some really cute puppies there.

[STRAYKINGFISHER]

Sorry, I misunderstood.

[pretty.rock.machine]

A furry iguana would be weird...

It's okay.

[STRAYKINGFISHER]