Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2015 3:25 pm Re: what did you name your turtle?
Named our RES "Centurion".
I coach track & field at a local High School in San Diego, California (about as far from native RES country as you can get).
The school mascot is a "Centurion".
One day (Spring 2014), during practice on the track, we heard a ruckus coming down a nearby hill. Plants swaying, and belly womping down the hill came a turtle!
She walked right on to the track. I figured right away she didn't belong in the wild around here (I knew a bit about turtles prior to this encounter). So I picked her up, put her in my backpack, and brought her home. Immediately set up a "pond" for her out of a kiddie pool I had.
After spending a couple of weeks trying to find her home (I figured she escaped from a backyard pond) we decided to keep her.
So I invested a bit of money into pond materials and built her a permanent home in our backyard. She loves it! It's full of guppies, mollies, and minnows for her to chase around. I also keep it stocked with a few crawdads (she loves trapping, and eating, them). It has a natural filtering system with plants, plenty of sunning areas, deep water, etc.
I put some thought into the pond and it is designed to both keep her in, and if a predator tries to get to her (we have coyotes, raccoons, etc. roaming around) it has hides, deep water, and areas where it would be almost impossible for them to get to her.
By surprise, early this spring (2015), we had babies hatch! Now I'm raising a quartet of babies too! But they are inside in a large tank and doing great as well. They are about 3 months old now and complete crazy water monkeys! So fun to watch! I'm going to give them another 3-4 weeks before I start looking hard into finding them permanent homes.