I want to thank you all for the great posts. As many of you may have read in my previous posts, our basement flooded and 2 weeks later we found a turtle living down there. After reading great stuff here (and not being able to find his owner -- assuming he had one because he/she looks pretty healthy) we took one of the plastic storage crates, cleaned it out, added rocks and water and -- Whaaalaaa -- a
temporary home for the turt. We figure he/she survived in the basement for 2 weeks on what was found there -- baby geckos, cockroaches that may have gotten in after the flood, and baby centipedes. Being that we live in the boonies and haven't had a chance to get near a pet store, we tried feeding what we had here. He loves cooked chicken, worms (and we just toss it in whole and "Nomer" takes care of everything), carrots sliced in long thin worm-like shapes, broccoli (toss a small head in and the turtle picks the green off), romain lettuce. He swims, sunbathes, and sleeps hanging on a rock. When we drop the worms in he looks like he's hunting.
We change the water every other day, and as soon as the weather gets to be more normal (still storming) he/she will get more water. We don't have a filter yet -- since we weren't expecting to have him -- or keep him. I have a thermometer in the water to keep track of the temperature -- which is between 72-77 degrees all the time without a heater. There are advantages to living in Hawaii!! So I guess we are hooked now. But he/she will never be in an indoor tank. We are going to try to figure out how to fix Nomer's "tank" so he can live outside.
I've taken some photos and thought maybe you folks could give me an idea if it's a boy or girl, and let me know if Nomer looks healthy enough to you. I know we need to get the cuttlebone -- will take care of that this weekend. I really appreciate all the advice. Any idea if it's a boy or a girl? When you get to the site just click play.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.j ... nn_speed=1