- Joined
- Apr 23, 2015
- Messages
- 239
I was working on the new egg laying/basking area for the pond in the dark (once baby is asleep) and I noticed that with the flashlight in the dark Fatty swam right up to me.
Early spring she would come up to feed pretty regularly, but for the last several months I only occasionally see her. I'll see her basking or eating from time to time, but she doesn't come hang out at surface a lot like she used to. I don't know if thats just getting used to the pond/feeding or if the new giant mexican musk turtles have changed the pond dynamic some.
In either case, since she was right at the surface saying hello I decided to pick her up for some quick photos and a weigh in.
Since she went back into the pond after a winter indoors, she has gained about 0.6 oz. Up to 7.85 oz or so. She is almost exactly 4" SCL and about 7 years old.
You can strongly see the Eastern integrade characteristics in the photo of her carapace. I recall @Markw84 bringing that up when they were a couple months old. The scutes all line up horizontally like the Easterns rather than the perfect halfway offset you see in the other painted turtles.
I always refer to Fatty as she, because where she and Granny were in an aquarium together when we lived in CA I found an inert egg on the basking dock. Fatty doesn't have super long claws, and the tail looks female to me, but I'm no expert. Can anyone tell from just the photos here? I meant to get a photo of her tail close up and claws, but she never comes out of her shell when I have her out of the water.
Early spring she would come up to feed pretty regularly, but for the last several months I only occasionally see her. I'll see her basking or eating from time to time, but she doesn't come hang out at surface a lot like she used to. I don't know if thats just getting used to the pond/feeding or if the new giant mexican musk turtles have changed the pond dynamic some.
In either case, since she was right at the surface saying hello I decided to pick her up for some quick photos and a weigh in.
Since she went back into the pond after a winter indoors, she has gained about 0.6 oz. Up to 7.85 oz or so. She is almost exactly 4" SCL and about 7 years old.
You can strongly see the Eastern integrade characteristics in the photo of her carapace. I recall @Markw84 bringing that up when they were a couple months old. The scutes all line up horizontally like the Easterns rather than the perfect halfway offset you see in the other painted turtles.
I always refer to Fatty as she, because where she and Granny were in an aquarium together when we lived in CA I found an inert egg on the basking dock. Fatty doesn't have super long claws, and the tail looks female to me, but I'm no expert. Can anyone tell from just the photos here? I meant to get a photo of her tail close up and claws, but she never comes out of her shell when I have her out of the water.