Other Turtle Discussion :: so if its illegal....

[DavidY]

ha ha...enforce education? They can't even get it right in the public school system.

sorry, had to vent...

[pumpkinsherbet]

you bring up a good point. i was thinking more along the lines that they should up the requirements for pet stores, and have them pass on proper care tips. these are living creatures people are dealing with and they put poorly trained people on the floor at barely above minimum wage. they tend to not care.

[DavidY]

yea, I kind of knew what you meant and I agree with you 100%. I just had to throw that other remark in.

[bubblestheturtle]

there are loopholes aroung the 4 inch law. if you raise turtles for a hobby and breed them, you are allowed to sell them. thats how i got my babies and how alot of people do, they buy them from a place that is generally a small privately owned business that taked intrest in breeding turtles and selling/breeding rare turtles. itsmore "educational" if its a hobby i guess? anyway, these places that sell these turtles, even tho they do it for a hobby ect...are really not any better than if petsmart was selling the babies. they breed them so they are purposely mutated, like no eyes, two heads, albino, ect. the ones with two heads dont survive very long. the ones with no eyes seem so do just fine, but taking advantage of the handicap and selling themm for more is just stupid. and the albino ones, well...i dont know if they have any health problems other then the fact taht they are bred with turtles of the same traits over and over again, that can lead to a weak immune system.

[xsavingsaturdayx]

I think there was a talk once that the albino RES have a shorter life span. Either way, they are expensive! They run about 150$ for a hatchling.

[bubblestheturtle]

i know they are very expensive. some people think they are scary looking but i wouldnt mind having one myself. but i have never seen a picture of an adult albino, so i think you are right on the shorter life span thing.

[xsavingsaturdayx]

I have seen pictures of adult albinos. I dont mean shorter life span as in they never get past their hatchling or sub adult stages. They usually live to about 30 years (some live up to ther 60's) so the albinos maybe have a life span of 20, maybe even 15, I would guess..

[BabyTurtleEver]

they breed turtles to have two heads? How is that even possible?

[xsavingsaturdayx]

Oh believe me it's possible..

[BabyTurtleEver]

oh that is so creepy and sad. and sick. and twisted.

[steve]

That middle pic is fake

[DavidY]

That middle pic is fake

Yea, it's like an exact mirror image! Good catch, Steve.

But the two headed phenomenon is not as rare in reptiles as you would think. There are certain species of snakes that are more prone to this than others. Likewise with some turtles. I read an article about it in Reptile Magazine once and I think it has to do with incomplete cell division in the egg. Sometimes the two heads share the same stomach (and other organs) while in other cases each head has its own stomach. Some have been known to survive and even reproduce (with normal offspring) but usually they don't live long.

Here's a 3 headed turtle that was found in Taiwan in 1999 though the 3rd middle head was not fully developed. They said the turtle would move in a zig zag fashion as if the 2 heads were arguing about which way to go.

[xsavingsaturdayx]

That middle pic is fake

Ahhh, fooled me!

[steve]

Thats OK, I've got 10 years of professional image editing with me. Oh, and anything on Worth 1000 is fake, they run photoshop contests, some of which are occasionally cool.

[DavidY]

Yea, they did a really nice job with that pic! I didn't realize it either until Steve said that.