Hello!
Just thought I'd pop in and introduce myself!
My name is Jennifer, and I live in Oklahoma. I recently came into possession of a rescue RES. Long story short, my little was found in a dark, dank prison cell. The inmate had been keeping him in a filthy ramen noodle cooker in a half inch of water. He was fed a diet of whatever the inmate could find, which apparently consisted of mostly dead insects. The moron even put a "gang tat" on his shell with a sharpie marker.
He was brought to me in a little Tupperware bowl one afternoon. I had no idea what to feed him that day so after doing some reading, I offered him the only thing I had on hand, which was a few dandelion greens. He wasn't remotely interested. I went to the store and grabbed some turtle food that also had dried baby shrimp and krill. He finally started eating the shrimp. No interest in the pellets at first but now he loves them.
Next, I set out trying to provide him a proper habitat. I spent a lot of time on this site (and others) researching care. I was able to borrow an aquarium from my brother and made a trip to petsmart and picked up a decorative Reptofilter (that also doubles as a basking spot, a deep dome light fixture,, a 5.0 UVB compact fluorescent bulb and some feeder goldfish. (Which now I know was a big No-No.) luckily he has not been able to catch any of them to eat them, but now I'm stuck with them.
I've had him about a month. He's gained some weight now, and his shell coloring has gotten darker. I THINK that's normal but unsure. He was such a bright green at first. I've made some tweaks to his vivarium. I just bought a mega-ray mercury vapor lamp to streamline his lighting a bit.
Anyway, I just wanted to say "Thank You!" for all the wonderful information and advice I has found on this site. I (and my little one) greatly appreciate it!