Found a Baby Turtle Today...

a reply to: Snarl

By keeping him, you can observe his behaviors, learn about him, perhaps gain a measure of respect that you might not have for him if you didn't bother.

In return, if you care for him well and respect him, he gets a head start in life over other baby turtles his age because he won't have to hibernate all winter. He'll be fat, happy, and well fed.

If you care for him properly for those few months, it can be a mutual win/win. Then in the spring, he goes on his way in the wild and you go on yours and each of you has gained something.

a reply to: blend57


Years ago, our oldest daughter, who was then in grade school, brought a small snapping turtle home. A friend of hers gave it to her, after her father found it when he was fishing. The novelty had apparently worn off! Of course it ended up being Mom who was most attached to it & got stuck having to take care of it!

Pretty much same scenario. Fall of the year, starting to freeze at night. He had been fishing far from here. Wasn't sure what it needed, to know where to release it! Decided to keep it over the winter.

Put a dish basin of water in one side of an aquarium. Filled the other half with pebbles. Made sure he could get in & out of the water easily. They feed while in the water & it has to be deep enough that they can submerge. They have to have a dry spot to climb out onto too.
I used spring water when the spring wasn't frozen over & tap water in the winter. But I let the tap water sit a couple of days before putting it in, so the chlorine dissipated. Fed him turtle food, meat & bugs. Tried lettuce & such, but he never wanted any of it.

I scrubbed the aquarium with baking soda & let the rocks soak while I did that. Then rinsed everything really well with hot water. He wasn't very active in the winter, even though he was in the warm house. It was almost a kind of hibernation. He didn't eat much then either.
It must have had to do more with the length of the daylight, than the temperature.

We called ours Snappy too! I read somewhere how to tell males & females apart. It's not what you are probably thinking! It had something to do with the shape of a certain spot on their shells & a special gripping toe/claw I think. I don't remember the particulars, it wasn't anything I needed to know long term! But it was a male.

I would let him loose in the bathtub when I cleaned the aquarium. He apparently didn't like it in there, even though it was a lot of open space, because he would always hiss when he was in there! Also when somebody tapped on the aquarium! The kids were amazed that it could hiss. Heck, so was I! It led to a whole discussion about what kinds of sounds some of the dinosaurs might have been able to make!

We ended up keeping him for two years, until he got almost as big as a dinner plate! We must have been doing something right! But we ran out of big enough aquariums! He developed a little curve to the edge of his shell on one side, because he always snuggled up against the aquarium on that side at night! The kids wanted to fix up the bathtub for him so we could keep him longer! The cat used to enjoy watching him, but after he got that big, he was mostly afraid of him!

I needed to start getting him ready to return to the outdoors. So in the Spring I decided to put him in the kids round wading pool, in the shade, for a couple of hours a day. The first day that I took him outside he kept looking up at the sky & treetops! I put a piece of quarter inch wire mesh over the pool. There was a four inch wide space on one side of the curve that wasn't covered. I figured there was no way he could get a hold of the slippery sides or get through such a small space. Especially since I hadn't put any water or stones in yet. Wrong!

I ran into the house to get something. Was gone not even two minutes, but when I came out, he was gone! There was no way somebody could have taken him out that fast, much less him finding the little space & managing to climb out!
I couldn't believe it! Our yard is a fair size, pretty open, grass was short, not a lot if places close by where he could hide.

The backyard sloped uphill & I could see all of it.
How fast could a turtle go? Especially an out of practice one! Checked up & down the road next, since turtles seem to feel a need to cross them!
Nothing. The whole one side of the yard is driveway...nothing! The opposite side is a small creek, no weeds or anything to hide in. The water is very shallow in the summer, it's mostly pebbles, with a little water trickling through the pebbles. No deep pools. Looked up & down stream...nothing!

I spent an hour searching everywhere. I finally decided that a turtle that was that clever & that fast would be fine! The creek eventually empties into a stream & there are a couple of nice, spring fed ponds in the neighborhood.

When school started that Fall, youngest daughter came home one day & said that a girl in her class, that lived over the hill & through the woods, about a half mile from us, found a big snapping turtle in their pond that summer. It's shell had an unusual, little curved edge on one side! Snappy had found a new home!
True story!

WOQ

a reply to: wasobservingquietly

Loved this story!

a reply to: blend57

Don't know if it has been mentioned, but turtles need sunlight or one of those lights that mimic natural sunlight or their shells will get soft and they will die. Very important info to know.

a reply to: Night Star

Yeah, it also wouldn't surprise me if you have to dust their food with calcium supplement to make sure they grow their shells and bones properly too.

a reply to: ketsuko

I buy mine the prepared turtle food from the pet store that has the nutrition and vitamins he needs.

originally posted by: IAMTAT
a reply to: blend57

Keep him.
My son has a pet turtle and he and his girlfriend love theirs.

#FreeDBCowboy

Not a snapper, those things are vicious.

I hope the turtle's doing good, he's cute as all hell! I do want to point out that you REALLY need to make sure what species he is, and find out if you can legally keep him.
I'm mentioning this because we just released a recently weaned wild cottontail babe my kids brought home after saving from being roadkill on a busy street (lecture about kids being roadkill not being any better was also had)
I spent a lot of time trying to find the laws on having a wild cottontail as a pet and eventually gave up searching online & just called a wildlife rehab center to see what they could tell me & suggest. FYI folks, in most states, it's illegal to own a wild cottontail rabbit, so if you help one, just help it enough to release back into the wild in a few days. The fines in some states are really steep, and some places fine AND jail you. Ridiculous since they're so prolific, but it's probably to protect the food sources for predator animals outside of hunting seasons. I should have asked the rehabber I spoke to, but I didn't think of it. That explanation merely makes the most sense to me.

Anyway, just be sure of what you have and if you can even keep it. I wouldn't want to see you punished for doing a good deed and making a buddy. Maybe if you can make a habitat (small artificial pond if you have the room?) where you live, he can thrive there and stay close to you without being considered captive? Baby Thumper was released outside today in the back yard, and found shelter under our deck to park it in after exploring the back yard's vegetation & sampling most of it (should be familiar foods, it's what I was gathering multiple times a day for him to eat after researching their natural diet)
I don't think he's going to go too far, he's really friendly and doesn't like to be too far from people, kind of follows us around like a kitten/puppy. I guess we made a good impression, he was only inside for 2 days.