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Post by Deleted on May 30, 2014 14:32:47 GMT -5
Wow that would be so amazing to see everyday! I love it!
We only knew our albino red ear slider was a female because she was heat sexed. I guess that isn't a GUARANTEE, but by the time she was a few years she had the other female signs, convex bottom shell, shorter claws, shorter tail and she was HUGE! Hence the FEMALE name. Jesse is unisex, we actually wont know his sex until he's about 10, so we have a while.
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Post by Jeremy's Boggle on May 30, 2014 14:59:35 GMT -5
We have almost always had turtles, love em! My hubby's prize possession was Crystal, his albino red ear slider. I got her as a father's day gift to him when she was about the size of a quarter and she got about 12 inches last year when we lost her. She was about 6. Now we just have the tort, but we have had various red ears, soft shells, long necks, and even an alligator snapper for a few months. Did Crystal not eat the gold fish? When Daisy was younger we had guppies in her tank with her but not she eats them so faster than they can breed. Actually she can clean the tank of 20 feeder guppies in an hour now.
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Post by Jeremy's Boggle on May 30, 2014 15:03:09 GMT -5
How did you get started with feeding the wild turtle Unclejoe? The pond here is full of them & the kids would love feeding them.
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Post by Deleted on May 30, 2014 15:32:06 GMT -5
Jeremy's Boggle Oh she ate em all right. She got daily pellets and other kinds of live food, but we got about 50 gold fish every 6 months or so and she ate about half the first day and a few more every few days. It's funny though, she almost always let 1-2 live and would get pretty big for feeder gold fish. We always joked that they were her 'friends.' She was a moody thing though, she would just randomly kill 5 or 6, not eat them, just kill them. It usually corresponded with a major tank cleaning or something. This almost always included her 'friends"...
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Post by unclejoe on May 30, 2014 16:35:07 GMT -5
If our pond terps would eat more fish they'd have less competition when we feed them! Today, Gamera, the big female soft shell showed up for a snack, and I wanted to show how big she is. In the foreground is Dee, an adult moscovy duck. Gamera has never eaten from a spoon before, but she did ok with it. We don't trust her 100% to hand feed her. Here she is next to Jordy and Sheldon
Dee was born here last summer, the only survivor of 100 eggs and 3 ducklings that we know of. Ducks are brutal. This year we've seen males breaking open eggs and actually attacking ducklings. This month, Dee and her mother each brought 2 to show off, but none survived.
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Post by Deleted on May 30, 2014 16:39:45 GMT -5
I would be nervous to hand feed her too! I think she'd take a finger tip with her!
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Post by unclejoe on May 30, 2014 16:45:27 GMT -5
Her head is about half as big as my fist!
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Post by Deleted on May 30, 2014 16:54:19 GMT -5
Yeah stick with a spoon!
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Post by unclejoe on May 30, 2014 20:47:36 GMT -5
How did you get started with feeding the wild turtle Unclejoe? The pond here is full of them & the kids would love feeding them. It took a lot of time. I started by tossing them floating catfish food pellets. (that's what's on the label, even tho everyone knows catfish are bottom feeders. We get them from a feed store) Over time they came closer to shore, and realized it was us giving them food. Then we put our folding camp chairs on the shore and waited for them to come in. Then we switched to bread because every wild critter will take bread, it seems, and it's more visible. Momma is now the most faithful, but she was actually the last of the regulars to trust us. It took a while for them to get used to us sitting there. Start with tossing just a few pellets to a turtle you see. Not too many because any fish will eat them. Might was well bring a chair so they get used to you being there right off. At first the terps would just dive and run, but eventually they got used to seeing us and ate pellets. No sudden movements or loud noises. Even now some of them will take off if they get spooked, by us or another turtle. Unless your turtles have been fed by people before, it could take a few months just to get them to come close. But they are wild. I met our soon to be new neighbor tonight as I was feeding them. Jordy was the only one who stayed. I think she just likes the attention. Some others do too, but Jordy is a serious chow hound. She's becoming quite tame around me, but Dar doesn't quite trust her. I sit there barefoot and she nuzzles my toes and I put my foot on her and she will pretend to be scared, but only swims a foot or two away and come right back. Not long ago she would nip at me. Remember, this has developed over a couple years. Be careful, because they can bite hard enough to draw blood and they can carry salmonella.
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Post by unclejoe on Jun 9, 2014 10:43:22 GMT -5
Jordy's a thief! I was spoon feeding him this morning and he grabbed the spoon and swam off with it. Can't even trust a turtle!
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Post by Deleted on Jun 9, 2014 17:31:59 GMT -5
Jordy's a thief! I was spoon feeding him this morning and he grabbed the spoon and swam off with it. Can't even trust a turtle! HAHAHA!! Oh that's good one! Maybe he will bring it back tomorrow.
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Post by unclejoe on Jun 9, 2014 21:09:43 GMT -5
I forgot, Jordy is a girl. we're so used to calling her him, lol. She has no tolerance for the other smaller females being in HER feeding area.
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Post by Jeremy's Boggle on Jun 11, 2014 8:28:09 GMT -5
Jordy's a thief! I was spoon feeding him this morning and he grabbed the spoon and swam off with it. Can't even trust a turtle! Too funny. Sounds like turtle feeding may be a bit beyond a 9 yr olds patience levels but we may try anyway. If nothing else we'll feed a few fish.
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Post by unclejoe on Jun 11, 2014 13:14:26 GMT -5
Yeah, even ours will sometimes get startled by quick movements. It takes a lot of sitting still and waiting for them to get to know you before they will approach. We started by tossing pond pellets to them when they were a few yards out watching us.
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Post by unclejoe on Jun 17, 2014 20:16:36 GMT -5
Zilla's back! He's a snapping turtle, and he looks like he's grown at least 20% since we fed him last fall. We saw him going across the yard to the feeding pond over a month ago. So, without further ado, Zilla, the Florida Snapper!
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