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Hello,
I just found a turt walking across my street. The turt was friendly & scared. He is very clean except for a little green moss on his shell, his belly has no markings...just a yellowish color...very clean. My husband wants me to bring him over to the swamp down the block but I'm not sure if he is a domestic pet. How can I determine this???
I do have a RES now so I know how to take care of turtles.
Please reply ASAP.
Thanks.

Well if he has no marking on his belly sounds like he is not a res, maybe a yellow bellied slider. If he has green moss though id say hes from the wild. even if its very little.

If you can post a pic that helps too.

Depends how far from water he was found as well...if there's no lake or river for miles then it was likely someone's pet.

If we figure out for sure that he/she is someone's pet, he was either dumped or escaped. You could try putting an ad in a newspaper, or stapling a flier or two to a telephone pole.

First questions to ask yourself, how far away is the nearest water source like a pond, stream, or swampy area? Has it been raining a lot recently or have you seen any flooding? Have you seen turtles in your area before?

Next questions, what type of turtle is it? (Photos posted on here will make it easier for us to tell, there are also id places online to help you out.) Is it native to your area? Florida is a little picky about turtles, so you obviously don't want to put a non-native turtle back into the wild, or it might be scooped up and killed at some later point.

Last questions, what is the condition of the shell? Is there any pyramiding? Moss/algae can grow in a normal turtle tank with poor conditions, so that doesn't mean it is necessarily a wild turtle. Is there any peeling? Is the bottom scratched up from like a rock or something?

You can also try a quick test out, try giving the turtle some pellets, in the water of course. If it quickly takes to them, it was probably captive at some point in its life, though not necessarily.