A friend at work who knows I have a soft spot for animals and also that I was building the enclosure asked if I could take his nephew's "Mississippi Map turtle" I obliged since I had planned the area for two water turtles. I went to pick her up and she was in a 10g tank with no basking area, no way to get out of the water and no lights. She had lived that way for three years and had a horribly deformed shell. (Wait, that's not the worst part) She belonged to a 7 yr old and was constantly picked up and dropped. She had a deep cut in her shell and her spine was visible.
(Still not the worst part) So I got her home, introduced her into the indoor tank and was amazed by her almost unwillingness to leave the dock.
She basked and basked and I took pictures and started to think, Mississippi Map turtles sure look funny...
(here it is:) She's a Gulf Coast Box Turtle. She lived in a couple inches of water for 3 years. Her shell is so flat I didn't even realize at first she was a box turtle.
She's about the same size as Ethel:
Here's their new outdoor home:
She enjoys a delicious box turtle appropriate meal, this one included cantaloupe which attracted ants! Double treat!
Ethel loves the little pond. (It's only about 40 gallons plus a waterfall) She gets lettuce scraps from the garden next door (and strawberries etc)
Here's a picture of her with Fred
