Hi! Introduce yourselves here.

Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2012 8:23 pm **Hello! Finally joined!**

Hello, we have finally joined. My name is Jimmy and my partner and I, John are turtle enthusiasts.

We've owned 3 turtles in our time - one baby (Lily, unfortunately passed from a bad respiratory infection). :msgreen:

(unconfirmed female because of her age, but acted like a little princess!)

Daryl - he's still around and a textbook case of a perfect turtle. No concerns (yet!) with him. :mrgreen:

(unconfirmed because of his age, but his features are pointing towards male, the older he gets)

And Matilda - we JUST purchased her, she was a rescue from a terrible living environment in a bad pet store - she's touch and go at the moment, and I've submitted a topic discussing her issues. :msgreen:

(confirmed - she's big enough to know for sure).

welcome welcome welcome!

post some pics, we'd love to see the three of them.

Lily

This was Lily, she was our first pet together. She was a lovely soul - our whole family just adored her. She died of a bad respiratory infection on April 16th, 2012 - we had her for about 2 and a half months, and she was about 1.5 inches when she died.

Daryl

This is Daryl, he's our crazy one! He's about 9 months old now. The first pic is one when we first got him (about 6 months old). The second was taken at 9 months. Very normal, all his vitals are spot on, he's been a great turtle - problem free! We were feeding him a little too much, but we've cut down a lot and started giving veggies too (which he despises... but tough!) He started out at 2 inches, and is now 3.5 inches (a little too fast, but we've slowed him down now)

Matilda

We don't have a great picture of Matilda yet - she's had a rough go at the pet store, we don't want to impose on her space with a photoshoot - not yet! So these Iphone3 pics will have to do (no flash). She's 4 inches.

Welcome to the site! Daryl's shell looks a bit bumpy, are those recent pictures?

steve wrote:Welcome to the site! Daryl's shell looks a bit bumpy, are those recent pictures?

The first one is the day we got him - we got him from a FABULOUS pet store about 30 mins from us.

You're right, he was showing signs of pyramiding a couple weeks ago - he was also growing WAY too fast, so we drastically modified his diet, first cutting it down, and then since we got Matilda, we've put him on a once a day feeding schedule (he was on a twice a day). We've also successfully introduced a couple vegetables (all he's eaten is asparagus and green leaf lettuce in the veggie realm). His bumps have improved since we changed the diet.

It's so hard to resist the begging for food, but really it's the only way to keep them healthy. But I put my foot down and am forcing him to be on a better diet for his health.

Yay! Pictures!
I've had to cut down on the food Baby Timmy was getting, because, after I joined this site, I learned that you weren't supposed to feed them when they begged. Sorry Baby Timmy!

The begging still hasn't stopped, though.

Love the pictures of Daryl. I'm sure Matilda will come around to being a ham for the camera eventually too.

apondfortimmy wrote:Yay! Pictures!
I've had to cut down on the food Baby Timmy was getting, because, after I joined this site, I learned that you weren't supposed to feed them when they begged. Sorry Baby Timmy!

The begging still hasn't stopped, though.

Love the pictures of Daryl. I'm sure Matilda will come around to being a ham for the camera eventually too.

Thanks! Yeah, they really need to make it much more clear about that on the turtle food canisters. Some of them are ridiculous. If you compare a number of them together, they will all give different instructions.

Best I've found, at least for juvenile turtles: half the size of their head, once a day. You'll read a lot of places these days that "the size of their head" is appropriate (which it may be for adults) - but I find this leads to protein bubbles in their water, which means they are getting too much protein, which can lead to pyramiding (a recent issue with Daryl), which can cause organ failure.

And btw - the begging is good. It's totally hard to resist, but it just means they are healthy. A good hunger response is the sign of a health turtle.

I've done the amount to the size of a hollow head for a hatchling, then at a year, cut back to the size of the head every other day. I have no bumpiness and a healthy male slider, at 3 yrs old he is about 5 in.

OK! I'll keep that in mind, because I'm trying to find the absolute best diet for my sliders, near flawless if possible.

Well near perfect would be going down to the pond in the region of the world your turtle came from. It's like lighting, we do the best we can with the equipment provided to us! Follow the recommendations provided to us and your turtle should have a healthy varied diet:) remember varied diet is the key. Turtles are like us, we don't like the same meal day after day. You remember that and you shouldn't go wrong. Check out the diet section and view the feeding forum for ideas.

Yeah, I'm browsing that part now lots - gathering ideas. I JUST changed my turtles diet, which is stressful on him, so I'm gonna wait a little to see the results of this - so far it's looking good!

Great pics, Jimmy!!

Yeah, they well be a little stubborn when changing the diet but they will come around soon enough. Nice turtles btw:)

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