Other Turtle Discussion :: Oldest Turtle on the Site?

Non-care related topics here.

Post Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2012 3:21 am   Oldest Turtle on the Site?

Just wondering who has the oldest guy or gal on the site.
1 RES, less than a year old.
User avatar
halfshell
 
Posts: 86
Joined: Apr 13, 2012
Location: Victoria BC Canada
Gender: Male

Post Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2012 9:13 am   Re: Oldest Turtle on the Site?

I think there are a couple in the 60-range (not sure if they are RES), and a few in the 40 range. There might be a thread about it too.
User avatar
steve
Site Admin
 
Posts: 31430
Joined: Apr 11, 2005
Location: New York, NY
Gender: Male

Post Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2012 1:52 pm   Re: Oldest Turtle on the Site?

the 60 range would be land based right? I doubt there are any sea turtle owners on here.
http://www.photobucket.com/Toku
Toku's build thread, click link below;
http://www.redearslider.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=34068
2 Male Rio Grande RES
1 Spiny Softshell

"Live Life"
User avatar
slider_keeper
 
Posts: 1342
Joined: Mar 7, 2010
Location: Arizona
Gender: Male

Post Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2012 5:32 pm   Re: Oldest Turtle on the Site?

slider_keeper wrote:the 60 range would be land based right? I doubt there are any sea turtle owners on here.



Freshwater aquatic turtles like RES yes. Sea turtles are protected and highly illegal to possess
User avatar
VeipaCray
Moderator
 
Posts: 4311
Joined: Aug 31, 2009
Location: Naperville, IL
Gender: Male

Post Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2012 5:47 pm   Re: Oldest Turtle on the Site?

yeah thats why I made that comment about the sea turtles VeipaCray;) Are you saying a RES will live 60 yrs?! I have only heard of 40 yrs for them in Captivity and if I'm not mistaken no really knows how long they live in the wild!
http://www.photobucket.com/Toku
Toku's build thread, click link below;
http://www.redearslider.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=34068
2 Male Rio Grande RES
1 Spiny Softshell

"Live Life"
User avatar
slider_keeper
 
Posts: 1342
Joined: Mar 7, 2010
Location: Arizona
Gender: Male

Post Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2012 9:33 pm   Re: Oldest Turtle on the Site?

Aren't RES lifespan 30 years?
1 RES, less than a year old.
User avatar
halfshell
 
Posts: 86
Joined: Apr 13, 2012
Location: Victoria BC Canada
Gender: Male

Post Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2012 10:29 pm   Re: Oldest Turtle on the Site?

Well this is the question. To be honest with you, I don't think anyone really knows. There is people out there that don't document the life span of their turtles, much less talk about their experience. In the wild, can you really tell how old a animal is? I sometimes question the herptologist? As far as the true answer to how long they really live, I feel there isn't enough research! Someone that has digged dipper than myself please respond!
http://www.photobucket.com/Toku
Toku's build thread, click link below;
http://www.redearslider.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=34068
2 Male Rio Grande RES
1 Spiny Softshell

"Live Life"
User avatar
slider_keeper
 
Posts: 1342
Joined: Mar 7, 2010
Location: Arizona
Gender: Male

Post Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2012 8:03 am   Re: Oldest Turtle on the Site?

No, the older turtles I think were cooters and a different type of slider.
User avatar
steve
Site Admin
 
Posts: 31430
Joined: Apr 11, 2005
Location: New York, NY
Gender: Male

Post Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2012 5:45 pm   Re: Oldest Turtle on the Site?

ok Steve that makes sense;)
http://www.photobucket.com/Toku
Toku's build thread, click link below;
http://www.redearslider.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=34068
2 Male Rio Grande RES
1 Spiny Softshell

"Live Life"
User avatar
slider_keeper
 
Posts: 1342
Joined: Mar 7, 2010
Location: Arizona
Gender: Male

Post Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 3:11 pm   Re: Oldest Turtle on the Site?

Toady is now 41. She has outlived 3 dogs followed by 3 of 4 cats. The last cat is now 18.
Toady enjoys a prime location in each of the five homes we have lived in around the country. Her bedroom (a 10 gallon shallow water tank that is on a stand next to her big tank) allows her to drydock, or get wet, through the night. During the day, she moves up to a 55 gallon tank that gives her unobstructed view of the kitchen table, TV or outside view of the garden. On days when the pool water is 75F or warmer, she is outside in our salt water pool. This year she has a pool buddy....a frog...that shares the sun with her.

Toady with friend.JPG
Toady with Friend


They are sunning on top of the pool cleaner's water supply hose. Toady has rested on that hose for several years now since the exotic pet vet said a salt water bath now and then would cure her shell rot or fungus. We now treat her 55 gallon tank with the same 3200ppm natural salt as our pool. She slides up and balances on the hose to buoy her mostly out of the water. We think she is dreaming of being on the front of a ship.

Toady float dreaming.jpg
Toady float dreaming


We tried all the standard turtle food. She ignores it as it floats around and eventually plugs the filters. She has eaten mostly the small bits and pieces of the hard food of what ever animal we had a the time be it dog food, cat food, or hamster. She loves an occassional house fly that is crippled by the fly swatter but not quite dead. She thinks she is JAWS as she creeps up on the feast. We have learned not to get a finger or hand too close or she latches on.

She has never been really sick. We took her to the vet once when her shell changed color and she was lathargic. An ocean salt solution bath once a night for week snapped her out of it.

We were wondering how long she might still live. I started a search and found this website. Now that we see there are 60+ old sliders on this site, we may also have to add her to our wills...along with a trust fund!
Last edited by webfooter on Mon May 29, 2017 12:24 pm, edited 2 times in total.
ToadyK
User avatar
webfooter
 
Posts: 6
Joined: Nov 21, 2012
Gender: Male

Post Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 8:07 pm   Re: Oldest Turtle on the Site?

whoaa! welcome! you should post your own thread about toady. we'd love to hear your experiences!
FAREWELL DUMBORK
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=36799

follow my blog: dumbork.wordpress.com
youtube: pawii29

pictures and video
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=32931
User avatar
dumbork14
 
Posts: 761
Joined: Jun 18, 2012
Gender: Female

Post Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2012 1:01 am   Re: Oldest Turtle on the Site?

41! Wow!!

So, was she a dime store turtle that you actually knew how to care for? The timeframe would be about right.
Tobi a RES born in 2012
1 dog, 1 teenager, 3 aquariums filled with fish, snails, shrimp and a bit of algae
User avatar
ljapa
 
Posts: 925
Joined: Jul 21, 2012
Location: Near Chicago in IN
Gender: Male

Post Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2012 5:02 pm   Re: Oldest Turtle on the Site?

dumbork14 wrote:whoaa! welcome! you should post your own thread about toady. we'd love to hear your experiences!


I AGREE.

Wow. I thought my Betty was old at 11-12. I knew they'd live a long time, but holy moly.
Guess my kids are going to be able to share their turtle pals with THEIR kids. :D
Outside Pond Boys: :mrgreen:Timmy & Chewy & Ike
Outside Pond Girls: :msgreen:Betty & Frick & Frack & Tina & Nyrtle-Sweetpea
Inside Tank: :mrgreen:Sheldon :msgreen: Mork :msgreen: Mindy
Nursery: :?: Baby Timmy & Ranger
User avatar
apondfortimmy
 
Posts: 489
Joined: Sep 8, 2012
Location: Las Vegas
Gender: Female

Post Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 8:56 pm   Re: Oldest Turtle on the Site?

Mine r all youngsters I have 3 Mississippi Maps, 2 females 1 male, and a extremely fat female RES who I inherited from my ex. The Maps ages r 3-4 years old r named Scrappy, Spike, and Casanova. My RES is named squishy and she is 6 or 7. They have all played together for about 3 years now as they r all in the same tank and do really well with one another :)
Sawback90
 
Posts: 9
Joined: Nov 27, 2012
Gender: Male

Post Posted: Mon May 29, 2017 11:49 am   Re: Oldest Turtle on the Site?

Learned two things about Toady this last year. The first was that we found pictures of Toady from 1969. So that puts this RES at 47 up a year from what I said last in 2012. The other item takes some explanation. Took Toady to the exotic vet for problems with eating. Turns out it was just turtle fasting. Some days they just don't want to eat. After 4-5 days we were concerned. We kept mentioning "she" does this or that. The vet said little during our descriptions. Then the vet said "you know she is a he, right?" Jaws dropped. So I must announce I have a four-legged, hardshell son.

He is still a mover and shaker. Bangs on his 15 gallon heated bedroom, with double pool coping tile dry dock, at dawn each day to announce he wants out. He either goes directly to his 55 gallon playroom or the 9200 gallon salt water pool. On some days we rinse and towel him off so he can crawl around the tiled sunroom and kitchen. So far no accidents be he loves to explore. He is no slouch on speed either.

Built him a PVC bridge with mesh landing pads over the spillway from our ground level spa to the pool. No instructions were needed by Toady. Within 5 minutes he had gone back and forth a few times as if he had done it a thousand times before. Last year I added a "sun deck" to his bridge. We had seen RES in a park all basking on large boulders rising from the ponds so figured he might like a place to get out and dry at his leisure. The stretchy fabric hammocks him a bit, and along with the railings on the bridge, keep him from going to the edges of the wall between spa and pool to make a clean get away to the pool landscaping. His owners were taught this lesson a couple of times when he was not found after being left on the spillway.

20151112_135503.jpg
Toady testing bridge railing


20170212_155239.jpg
Toady on bridge with sun deck expansion


20161107_125454.jpg
Toady on sun deck expansion


His 55 gallon playroom developed a slow seep back in February. Took 2 complete scrape outs, cleanings, and aquarium sealant applications to make it waterproof again. Seems I do this every 5-7 years. Old sealant will not stick to new sealant. Acetone and mucho rinsing, and drying is the key. Can't rush the process. It takes one whole day to scrape, clean, and dry before I start the seal the next day. I allow 48 hours there after to cure before adding water.

This time we did not reintroduce the ancient aquarium rocks to his clean playroom. Every time I drained to replenish the water before this time, the rocks were a mess requiring multiple rinses, a 30 minute Clorox and water soak, rinse again followed by a fill. Twice a year I removed the rocks and boiled them in water for 15 minutes. It has been 3+ months and today, when I performed the monthly drain, flush, and refill, I found 3 small rock presents at the bottom. Looked up online and found it was not a good idea to use the small gravel. It is not supposed to be a digestive aid as do birds. So now Toady has a clean, modern, all glass sides, hexagon playroom. When I looked for links on the gravel eating, I saw this website. Did not realize it had been 5 years since my last and only entry. If Toady keeps on moving on, I will have to repost before the next 5 years have lapsed.
ToadyK
User avatar
webfooter
 
Posts: 6
Joined: Nov 21, 2012
Gender: Male

Next

Return to Other Turtle Discussion

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests