General Care Discussion :: After 15 Years - 4 Turtles All Escaped One Night

[grey goose]

I think it's weather related. Turts kept outside can act very strange in the spring. They may have been trying to fall back to hibernation with the coming storm, although escaping the pond (all four) is really weird. By next week I'll be checking all the coastal access roads around here for Eastern Painteds who, for no apparent reason, start wandering around in a disoriented state. Why they leave the relative safety of the ponds and creeks to wander out onto roads, train stations, backyards etc. is a mystery to me.....

[RunninWideOpen]

grey goose- is it mostly the young ones that tend to wander or is it all ages?

[grey goose]

I've picked up hatchlings, adults, males and females. They don't all do this, but enough to keep me hopping around. You can tell they just emerged, they are all very skinny. I've found them under decks, in basements, inside train stations, catch basins (those are the worst), I even found one that wandered in the rear entrance of a pizza joint! Scared the crap out of the cook.

[RunninWideOpen]

LOL.....probably better the back door than the front door. that's interesting though.........what do you do with them when you find them?

[DavidY]

Wow, that's pretty cool! What do you do with them, return them to their ponds? Do they try to wander off again? How far from their water sources have you found them? I will also keep an eye out for any wanderers. I have found a couple of RES and common snappers wandering across roads before and I always stop to help them across the street or if the water source is nearby, I return them there.

[RunninWideOpen]

I found a 2 foot long desert tortoise in the middle of the street once, but that turned out to be a runaway pet

[grey goose]

I have five spots that I take them to. All are out of the way, off the beaten path, so to speak. Although one is a "duck pond" set back in the warehouse district. But all have plenty of vegetation and killifish to keep them busy, so once they settle in, they rarely leave. I think all the development going on around here is partly to blame......

[Spookster]

These turtles are over 15 years old and are little? Or did you mean you have been taking care of turtles for over 15 years just not these?

[faithin_felix]

well animals do detect natural disasters better than humans so it could be a possibility. i am very sorry for your loss.

[jim251]

These turtles are over 15 years old and are little? Or did you mean you have been taking care of turtles for over 15 years just not these?

I guess little was a relative term. Cruiser was the oldest. I got her in 92. Then I got 3 more babies in 97. They never grew larger than Cruiser so they were always referred to as the "little guys" since they were all male and loved to do the finger dance with Cruiser.

[jim251]

Do you have a water testing kit?

I wonder if there's any chance something happened to the water that made it intolerable for them?

I have to admit this is a big concern for me. It may have been a water quality issue indeed. This winter the filter I use for cold weather died on me a few weeks earlier. I knew I was going to comptetely makeover the pond after the trees were cut so I hesitated. There were goldfish in the water and they all survived fine. However, I'm sure the water quality was probably worse than ever at the moment they escaped:-(

[DavidY]

How difficult was it for them to climb out? I'm wondering how desperate they were to escape cause you said it looked like they injured themselves trying to dig. Do you think they did that digging in the pond or after they got out? This is like an episode of CSI or X-Files, not to make light of it, but it is mysterious.

[jim251]

I've been trying to find some digital pics that show the pond. I hope to have some posted soon.

[Rocky YBS]

thats horrible!!!!
im so, so sorry for your loss.
it must be hard for you guys!
i would think about those racoons.
i hope the turts u have left will recover.
god...i am so sorry:(
i hope you will feel better about what has happened.
dont blame your self for this horrid thing that has happened!

[softtail]

Wow Jim what a terrible thing, I'm so sorry!! Interesting to find out what was going on in the pond! It almost sounds like predators but I would have no idea! Awww poor things!!