Hi! Introduce yourselves here. :: How/Why did you choose your turtle(s)?

[mkoby]

I got my baby RES for my daughter at a flea market 11/24. He's just under 1.5 inches. He was hiding under a log in nasty, nasty water and kept poking his head out. It's a shame how they are treated. The man that sold him gave me a plastic critter carrier with gravel and not even 2 inches of water. He said to just add a larger rock for basking. He also told me to feed my turt 5 pellets a day and the food should last at least 1 year! I had no idea what I was getting myself into! (my daughter's 11)

I'm glad I found this site. If it weren't for everyone on here...

I've since spent over $120 on my $5 dollar turtle! I ran out and purchased all the necessary items from a 10 gallon tank (I hope to upgrade in the near future. I'm currently searching craigslist and such.) to live plants, feeder fish and ghost shrimp. All of this much to my husband's dismay!!!!

[cprcheetah]

I was at Petco sitting with our adoption cats from work and someone brought in Zeke tank and all and was 'sick' of him. They do adopt them out. So I said what the heck...I'll take him and he's been here since July and is a happy little guy.

[xsavingsaturdayx]

for me and my girlfriend's anniversary she surprised me with two turtles,the pet shop she bought it from sold it to her in a little plastic container with very little water and gravel at the bottom they told her all they should eat is pellets,and pork everyday and when they get bigger to just release it into a canal.at the time me and her were like "well they do know about animals" so i guess we should trust them,little did she know what she got me into.two days later i had alot of questions so i surfed the internet and came across this site and realized i wasnt close to haveing a suitable habitat so i went out and bought over 200$ dollars worth of equipment.found them a vet because at the time i discovered they had a RI....but....it was worth it,im so happy with my turtles i wouldnt trade them for a million bucks!

[marisa]

I don't think I really consciously "chose" my RES (other than agreeing to take him), rather it seems that he chose me.

[kidzncatz]

Well, I was simply visiting a flea market when I was abhored to see two tiny baby RES in these tiny little containers with almost no water. It was over 90 degrees that day and they looked pretty sick. While I knew it was illegal to sell/buy them here I gave the idiot selling them my money for the turtles (yet refused to buy the other things I had planned on from him.)

Once home I googled them and set them up in a small temporary tank. The smaller of the two was very ill so I contacted our local Wildlife rescue group. They took the sick one, got him at least eating again, and than, after reporting us to the DNR (by law they were obliged to) RETURNED my little guy. Sadly he passed away a few weeks later. His sibling, Tubs, is now two years older, several inches longer, and thriving. The DNR has never come knocking to repo my tubby little man so it looks like he's here to stay and we couldn't be happier.

So while I didn't go looking for my RES, I'm certainly glad he's here. Of course if there's a stray or animal in need of help within a five mile radias it ends up with me (hence the three cats, two dogs, turtle, hedgehog and gazillion fish currently residing in our home....)

[Bea]

My roommate brought two baby RES home in a small container last year and they didn't last longer than a month. I googled about how to care for baby turtle and gave her all the printouts but she reluctantly listened to me. So when my coworker wanted to get one for her children I asked her to get me one too. I bought a 10 galon tank with water filtration system, uv light and heater. Four months later my Tucker still is still alive, well and happy. Lesson to be learned if you're going to care for someone, make sure you take a serious responsibility. Not sure who is lucky, me or Tucker:)

[industrial_girl_2000]

This is a great thread!

17 yrs ago, I had just lost my first 2 turtles to RI & it would be safe to say that I was heartbroken & trying to heal from that experience. I went into a local pet store on a whim and saw Sheba swimming in the most beautiful waterfall pond setup in the store. She had a big goldfish in her mouth & was (quite literally) stuffing her face. I found her interesting, walked away to look at some other things in the store, then came back to see what she was doing. She swam right over and just looked at me. I was immediately smitten by the look in her eye, and I couldn't resist buying her.

I guess you could say it was, in a way, love at first sight!

[Jessica313]

i didnt even have to go to the petstore to get my turtle!! 2 years ago a good friend of mines roommate had a RES for only a few weeks.. when he escaped. he had been gone for 3 days.. and they were convinced he wasnt coming back. they looked EVERYWHERE for him. they had gone out and bought another turtle.. they hadnt even put the new turtle in the tank when the other one showed up!!! (this is when i came over - not knowing anything about the turtles) they had decided to go return the new turtle they just bought but i had already fell in love with him so i said "no! give him to me" ... and thats how it began.. i had no idea what i was gettin myself into, but i wouldnt trade him for the world