General Care Discussion :: Finally a picture of Squirt!

[Bobbysmom]

Hi all! we have had Squirt now for about 6 weeks and finally got a decent pic of him and mearsured him. As you can see he is only about 2in. far below the 4in it is legal to sell them at. By the way the one holding him is the S.R.B Bobby.

[Bascomb]

b-mom -- Be careful about taking squirt out too much. Their body temp drops very quickley when exposed to ambiant air. They get cold, then put back in the tank to warm, then back to cold when you take them out again. They are in danger of getting RI when so young and small. b.

[TheComputerGremlin]

Bascomb nailed it! They might be completely adorable and you want to hold them, but until they are about 4", their risk for developing a fatal RI (which at that age/size are almost always fatal) is huge. If you want to continue letting your turtle get comfortable with you, you can always have your hand in the water (just watch for nibbling), you can hand-feed your turtle their pellets, or you can take them out of the water for just a few moments and keep them over the tank.

Part of why RIs are more fatal in smaller turtles is that it seems most vets, herp vets included, won't treat turtles this small because it's too difficult to get the dosage of medicine right.

[Bobbysmom]

Thanks for the advise. He was only out just long enough for me to clean out a mess he made in his tank, and these pics were all took within a minute or so (thats why some came out fuzzy).