Post by crazycrowman on Jan 29, 2009 16:16:27 GMT
So as to not derail Dinonikes awesome figure thread, I made a new place for "turtle talk" 
Hey CC, great pics.. 
How is John over at Loggerhead Acres ? I heard about the theft he experianced awhile back..right after he was Animal Planet I think. I've had two Alligator Snappers from him in the past..both now reside at our local children's museum..my tank for them broke down and I could afford to replace the equipment... 
maybe one day I'll get another hatchling from him. We had even talked about Matamatas..he was considering breeding those at the time.
All I have now is a baby Common Snapper that some kids brought me this past summer and a Yellow belly painted that has been in my pond forever..lol
I don't really know John well, but I also head about the theft. I did not know he was going to work with Matas. They are pretty neat turtles. Ally snappers are fascinating turtles. I love to watch them "fish" with mouth wide open.
Bummer about your tank. at least at the childrens museum you know they will receive proper care. I know I like the stock ponds because they are so cheap and sturdy. I have a few aquariums, like for the Black Knobbed Sawbacks and the Western Painted Turtles, but most everyone else is in a Stock tank or a Waterland tub.
Is the turtle in your pond an Eastern Painted Turtle, (they do have yellow bellies) or a Yellow Bellied Slider ?
Hey CC.
All of my boxers are either rescued pets or (a very few that were) taken off roads and given to me when much younger. I never collected.
All of your set-ups look nice. I love 3-toeds and have two myself. I lost my favorite of all of my turtles, a three-toed female, two springs ago when she woke up from hibernation only to die within the day. Not sure what happened there. I'd had her for about 25 years.
My cousin used to work with diamondback roadkill eggs at college. They'd get something like 100 a season.
And last year I tried to get a friend of a coworker of my mother to donate his Sulcata to a proper residence but he wouldn't do it and passed it along to a neighbor, knowing it was already malnourished.
Glad yours are in the hands of someone who gives them proper care.
Brett
Great to hear that people are helping with box turtles that need homes. They are one of the many species of animal that people purchase/catch thinking that they will have an easy, low cost, low care creature, and then usually end up killing, or at least seriously malforming it. Eastern Box turtles are protected in this state and people are not allowed to keep them, but it does not stop folks from bringing the poor things home and stuffing them in a 10 gallon aquarium.
Sorry to hear about your female three toe.
Its always hard to say what happens when an animal passes like that, even with a necropsy sometimes you can not be sure. Hibernation can be hard on animals, or maybe she was just very old ?
Was your friend at Stockton College ? I used to live down in south Jersey and while I was in high school I was an active member at the Wetlands Institute of Stone Harbor - They had the start of the Terrapin Rescue Project, and needed people to help the terps cross the roads at the time, and collect damaged turtles and the eggs from the roadkilled females. Thankfully now more folks have gotten involved, along with the collage, and plenty of barrier fences have been constructed to try to keep the animals from going across some of the more well traveled roads. Its not an end all to conservation, especially as development continues to eat up more shoreline and destroy habitat, but it sure beats doing nothing.
Its vile what some folks do to sulcatas.
They really are not a good choice for most people wanting a "pet" tortoise. They are very strong, and very messy animals. All of the ones I care for were rescue animals. The largest, Sahara was cared for properly, but her owner lived in NYC and had no space for her when she hit 15" long and started to destroy her apartment. She has an old burn on her carapace from when a heat lamp fell on her at her previous home, but she is otherwise perfect. Topaz, the one male we received was kept in a 40 gallon aquarium and fed salad greens and had some major digestive issues and mild pyramiding when we got him, and the small female Nomad, has major pyramiding and was found wandering along route 70 in may.
They are all well cared for now, given a proper diet, (Its funny, we call them "Horses in shells" because of the way they need kept, given mostly hay, proper outdoor graze, cactus pads, and a few squash and things like carrots and cactus fruits every now and then as a treat) Compared to the Red Foot tortoises who need salad and fruits daily, and even get some meat every now and then. I think many people don't understand how different tortoise/turtle species can be from each other in care and dietary requirements.
How is John over at Loggerhead Acres ? I heard about the theft he experianced awhile back..right after he was Animal Planet I think. I've had two Alligator Snappers from him in the past..both now reside at our local children's museum..my tank for them broke down and I could afford to replace the equipment... 
maybe one day I'll get another hatchling from him. We had even talked about Matamatas..he was considering breeding those at the time. All I have now is a baby Common Snapper that some kids brought me this past summer and a Yellow belly painted that has been in my pond forever..lol
I don't really know John well, but I also head about the theft. I did not know he was going to work with Matas. They are pretty neat turtles. Ally snappers are fascinating turtles. I love to watch them "fish" with mouth wide open.
Bummer about your tank. at least at the childrens museum you know they will receive proper care. I know I like the stock ponds because they are so cheap and sturdy. I have a few aquariums, like for the Black Knobbed Sawbacks and the Western Painted Turtles, but most everyone else is in a Stock tank or a Waterland tub.
Is the turtle in your pond an Eastern Painted Turtle, (they do have yellow bellies) or a Yellow Bellied Slider ?
All of my boxers are either rescued pets or (a very few that were) taken off roads and given to me when much younger. I never collected.
All of your set-ups look nice. I love 3-toeds and have two myself. I lost my favorite of all of my turtles, a three-toed female, two springs ago when she woke up from hibernation only to die within the day. Not sure what happened there. I'd had her for about 25 years.
My cousin used to work with diamondback roadkill eggs at college. They'd get something like 100 a season.
And last year I tried to get a friend of a coworker of my mother to donate his Sulcata to a proper residence but he wouldn't do it and passed it along to a neighbor, knowing it was already malnourished.
Glad yours are in the hands of someone who gives them proper care.
Brett
Great to hear that people are helping with box turtles that need homes. They are one of the many species of animal that people purchase/catch thinking that they will have an easy, low cost, low care creature, and then usually end up killing, or at least seriously malforming it. Eastern Box turtles are protected in this state and people are not allowed to keep them, but it does not stop folks from bringing the poor things home and stuffing them in a 10 gallon aquarium.
Sorry to hear about your female three toe.
Its always hard to say what happens when an animal passes like that, even with a necropsy sometimes you can not be sure. Hibernation can be hard on animals, or maybe she was just very old ? Was your friend at Stockton College ? I used to live down in south Jersey and while I was in high school I was an active member at the Wetlands Institute of Stone Harbor - They had the start of the Terrapin Rescue Project, and needed people to help the terps cross the roads at the time, and collect damaged turtles and the eggs from the roadkilled females. Thankfully now more folks have gotten involved, along with the collage, and plenty of barrier fences have been constructed to try to keep the animals from going across some of the more well traveled roads. Its not an end all to conservation, especially as development continues to eat up more shoreline and destroy habitat, but it sure beats doing nothing.
Its vile what some folks do to sulcatas.
They really are not a good choice for most people wanting a "pet" tortoise. They are very strong, and very messy animals. All of the ones I care for were rescue animals. The largest, Sahara was cared for properly, but her owner lived in NYC and had no space for her when she hit 15" long and started to destroy her apartment. She has an old burn on her carapace from when a heat lamp fell on her at her previous home, but she is otherwise perfect. Topaz, the one male we received was kept in a 40 gallon aquarium and fed salad greens and had some major digestive issues and mild pyramiding when we got him, and the small female Nomad, has major pyramiding and was found wandering along route 70 in may.They are all well cared for now, given a proper diet, (Its funny, we call them "Horses in shells" because of the way they need kept, given mostly hay, proper outdoor graze, cactus pads, and a few squash and things like carrots and cactus fruits every now and then as a treat) Compared to the Red Foot tortoises who need salad and fruits daily, and even get some meat every now and then. I think many people don't understand how different tortoise/turtle species can be from each other in care and dietary requirements.
