Other Turtle Discussion :: What was your turtle doing when you saw him/her for the ...

[octpusgirl8]

Oh this is such a neat idea Kevin I love all the stories!
When i first met Turtley, he was sitting in a little plastic "lagoon" complete with palm tree and island. My boyfriend-at-the-time's little sisters had brought him back from thier florida vacation. He had another little hatchling in there with him, and they were both sitting on the island looking sad. I had never seen a baby turtle in person before, so i was fascinated by the cute little guys. I had no idea about what sort of care they needed, or how big they got, but i still knew that this little plastic tub couldn't be good for them. After a couple of depressing weeks, i noticed that one of the turtles was dead, and i was really upset and talked my boyfriend into putting the other one (Turtley) into his fish tank in his room. He swam so fast around that tank, it must have been the happiest day of his life! Within a couple of hours he had eaten all the tetras in the tank, and was resting on the little piece of cork bark i put in for him. He lived there in what i know now were still pretty crummy conditions for a few years, until the now-ex-boyfriend had to move back home with his parents and they wouldn't let him bring the fishtank. Being the animal junkie that i am, i jumped at the chance to make the little cutie my own. I did all the proper research, and set about hooking him up with the finest turtle luxuries. Now, 3 years later, i think i finally have it all figured out, thanks in no small part to this site and all the helpful folks on it!

[DavidY]

Wow, your ex-bf must not have been too happy about the turtle eating all of his tetras! lol!

[octpusgirl8]

Well he wasn't entirely thrilled about it, but that happy little turtle was just so darn cute, he coudn't be too upset about it!

[Starchick]

I actually knew Napoleon for years before we adopted him! He belonged to my friend's little brother, and I have vague memories of peeking at him when I was over there throughout high school. When we decided we wanted a turtle, we called their mom figuring she'd know where to get one, and she told us that since Greg was leaving for college, we could have the turtles. We only wanted one to start, and they picked Napoleon for us (then named Speedy) because he was more active and they figured he'd be more interesting for us. I think he was paddling around when we first saw him. We hustled him out to the car still in his tank (good thing I live just around the corner!) Hercules we decided to adopt about six months later because by then we'd learned so much about what turtles need and wanted to give him a better home. He was floundering around in about 2 inches of water when I went to get him. With Apollo, his rehabber sent me pics of her three boxies to choose from, and there was Apollo, looking tough and feisty. There was one that had deformed feet and was really shy, and an adult female, but Apollo's personality was pretty clear from the photos. The first time I saw him, he was in a rubbermaid shoebox hiding under a flowerpot. He had to be driven 4 hours from his rehabber's house to get to me, and he was not interested in coming out to meet me. For the most part, I don't feel like I've gone out and taken my pick of turtles, it's more like they find their way to me!

[GotEmInOkinawa]

My first turtle was my wifes first turtle. One of the guys I work with was leaving the island for his next base, and asked if i wanted a turtle. I went home and asked the boss, and got an immediate yes. When we took Yurtle into our possession, we were told that he like his water cold, so drop an ice cube in there every now and then, and feed him 5 pellets once a day. That was all we knew, and stupidly I didn't bother to find out more about him. I didn't even know what kind of turtle he was. We cleaned hhis tank every week, but he died. I felt bad that he died, so I told we'd get her another one. Only when we found out where we could get another turtle, she had by then gotten a dog so I decided I wanted my own pet, and got my two little guys. Still didn't know anything about nothing. Thank goodness I have a boring job which allows me to browse the net often. Were it not for wikipedia and awesome sites such as this... I might be another sad case of turtle mistreatment. Thanks for all everyone's help!

Kevin

[forlogos]

me and my girlfriend were walking through a neighborhood in Philly when we walked by a shop that sold toys and clothes and saw about a dozen hatchlings swimming in a small tupperware full of water and resting on a floating piece of styrofoam. We wanted to get a male and a female, so the shopkeeper "picked" two turtles for us, claiming you could sex a turtle based on the patterns on their plastron.So the first time we saw Rex and Cinderella was on the palm of the shopkeeper.

We took them home in one of those disposable chinese food tupperwares, but not before we subjected them to over two hours of touristsy walking, two hours in a bouncy Chinatown bus headed back for New York, and about a half hour on the subway. They looked tired and scared by the time we finally got home. Needless to say, they are now happy turtles

[FLhaven4strays]

My teenage daughter and a friend burst into the house one day holding a tupperware container the size of my hand with holes cut in the lid yelling "Mom! Mom! Come look at this! You won't believe it!"

Of course I knew right then we were getting another pet. At least this one doesn't jump on you. They'd found her walking down the sidewalk - no water anywhere close to our street, so I dunno where she came from. I set up a temp home and asked around, but no neighbors admitted to losing a turtle. Soooooo I dug a pond and gave Liza a new home.

Two weeks later I went out to feed Liza and water some new plants and saw a turtle dive off the basking rock. I didn't get a good look, but since Liza was still on the rock I had a good idea that she had a friend. It took the rest of the afternoon for me to get a good look at the male RES that turned ended up named Mercer...he's a shy fellow. I finally saw him when I pulled up in the driveway - out on the basking rock again bold as you please, all 4 legs stuck out in the air. Awwwwww...how could I say no to that?

[Tenodera]

LOL! Both of your turtles found their way to YOU!

[untsmurf]

I was at Will's house for summer break and we had gone to the mall and saw the kiosk selling turtles. I asked Will for one and he really liked the idea so we went there. I asked the lady for a boy and the first one she pulled out (there was about 20-30 in a 20 long) was Mikey. So, they sold us the death bowl and told us what kind of food to give him and how to set up the tank. We immediately went to Wal-Mart and got him a 10 gallon with all the fixin's. Once we got him set up we thought he looked lonely so we went back to the kiosk and asked for another boy and after checking about five or so turts he pulled out Donatello. We took him home and put him in the Mikey.

[Sgt. Pepper]

I had wanted a pet for a while now but I didn't want fish and since I live in a dorm there weren't many options. The rule of thumb for pets was that they had to be able to survive underwater for 10 minutes, so I thought TURTLE! I had had a turtle once before when I was much younger and I had loved it so I decided it was time for a new one.

The first store I went to only had a larger turtle that would need a very large tank and I didn't have room for that. The second store only had some tortoises that were also too big, and obviously not aquatic. The last place had what looked like maybe a 20 gallon tank with about 15 to 20 little RES swimming and diving about, as well as one little softshell turtle and a salamander. After following the sales clerk around the store as she picked out the basic necessities I went back and stared at the little turtles. There was one turtle looking right at me trying to swim through the glass so I decided on that one. Of course I should've known because now all he does is try to swim through the glass and escape, haha.

Now I've spent the last several days reading up on RES and adding to Sgt. Pepper's tank to make it a bit more comfy.

[emma]

I waited for about 2 weeks to get my turtles. I had to do chores around the house to prove that I would be able to take care of them and give them a good home.

When I went to the pet store to get my turtles I was so excited! I couldnt wait! As i was picking one out I saw the tiniest turtle and I knew that I HAD to have that one! It was so cute!

And for the other one that I got, he was just sitting there basking with his arms right out in front of him. It was so cute I knew that I just had to get him!:) And his arms are SOOOO long I cant believe it! Such a TINY turtle with the biggest arms! Tinest turtle I have EVER seen.

And for the other two, my brothers picked out. I really have NO idea what they were thinking when they got theirs.

-----Keira-----Brownie-----Laser-----Ms. Cool-----

[ellman605]

They both were climbing on top of eachother, it was really cute

[Opus]

Well,here's my turtles story.......

When franklin(my first turtle)died,Iwent get a new one.......all of these turtles were in only 2 cms of water in a 50L tank with atleast 10 baby turtles!!!!And they were all on the rock except opus!he was eating everything in the tank!he came close and said save me!so I got him!
And he is still soooooo!!!!!!!!!!CUTE!

[Ferd]

this is soo much fun!

Ya know, my turtles were a complete accident. my aunt (god rest her soul) some friends and i went out to play paint ball. however Gump (another nickname that has stuck to a friend) needed food for his 5 turtles so we went into a pet store. My Aunt saw all the little turtles in the cage and as we were leaving she yelled "CALEB!! LOOK WHO I GOT!" and she came out with ricochet! he was soo small, about the size of a half dollar, but she said he was the biggest. Well the next day she asks "do you want another one?" well at the time i didnt know a dang thing about the turtes so i said sure. so we went over there and poor little speedy! he was trying to get on the little dock. he was the only one NOT on the dock. he looked so tired swimming around the dock that he gave up ans sank to the bottom. he looked over at me and i chose him! poor little fella was a little bigger than a quarter. and those little eyes just starring at me. iti wasnt the smartest move to do at that time, but i think it was worth it in the long run

[sai_dee]

I was at Chinatown and I saw this one turtle constantly making attempts to walk
through their plastic prison, of course this was impossible which resulted in the turtle
caught in a constant limbo of backflips.