Hello! I need some help here...

[HelpTurtleandTortoise]

My dad is an ex zoo and animal sanctuary owner. He recently passed away and I inherited 30 or so turtles and tortoises of several breeds and species. I need help identifying them, feeding, caring for, and selling them. They are all shapes and sizes from 3 inches to about 21 inches. I will post some pics as soon as i get some online.

 

[Tom]

Hello and welcome. Sorry to hear about your dad. Condolences. I hope we are able to help you. Where are you located?

 

[dmmj]

We will do our best in ID'ing them, sorry to hear about your dad, sounds like he was an animal lover. What state are you in?

 

[dmarcus]

Hello and welcome to the forum.. We will be glad to help you ID your animals...

 

[Jacqui]

I am so very sorry for the reason that has brought you here *hug*, but sounds like fun to try IDing them.

 

[Yvonne G]

Please accept our most sincere condolences for you and your family during this hard time.

Of course we'll help you! Looking forward to pictures.

 

[ALDABRAMAN]

Welcome from ALDABRAMAN!

 

[laramie]

Greetings and alutations!

 

[DesertGrandma]

So sorry to hear about your Dad. That sounds like a huge undertaking for you. You will find a lot of help here to identify and find homes for your Dad's animals. He must have been quite the animal lover.

 

[HelpTurtleandTortoise]

Hello and welcome. Sorry to hear about your dad. Condolences. I hope we are able to help you. Where are you located?

I'm in Kentucky. I think I figured out some of them today. The 2 that are in a pen together that are the biggest (about 20 inches) are either a Red or Yellow Footed Tortoise and another one in a pen by himself is an African Spurred Tortoise. He's about 8 inches.

---

Hello and welcome to the forum.. We will be glad to help you ID your animals...

Thanks, their in my grandmother's basement. As soon as I get over there and get some pics I will post them. There is one turtle that i'm a little concerned about. All the rest of them eat as soon as I put food in their pens, but he just lays there. I thought he was dead when I first seen him. He is in a pen by himself that has sand and water in it. The food I put in last time was gone so he eventually eats it. It looks like he's been digging in the sand a little and if I touch his feet he'll move them back in his shell so he is alive.

 

[Jacqui]

If he is on pure sand, you may want to really check him out. He could be suffering from impaction from the ingestion of the sand.

 

[HelpTurtleandTortoise]

So sorry to hear about your Dad. That sounds like a huge undertaking for you. You will find a lot of help here to identify and find homes for your Dad's animals. He must have been quite the animal lover.

Yes, he was the owner of the Suwannee Valley Zoo in Lake City in Northern Florida, but by no means was he well off or rich. He lived in a trailer in the backwoods of Lake City and was sponsered by the Food Lion grocery that would donate raw meat for his big cats( black panther, bobcats, jaguars, and a tiger that he raised from a cub.) I've ran into a problem. He had a small aquarium full of hundreds of black beatles and mill worms. All the black beatles have died and i have no idea how to keep them alive. They are for the water turtles. I have been grabbing them one at a time, but i think he had some sort of sifter to get them and I have know idea what he did with it. Any ideas anybody? Well, I hope thats what they are because I've been grabbing them and the worms have little legs I just noticed. I hope there not millipedes or something! Do mill worms have legs?

 

[Jacqui]

Not an expert on the bugs but, the black beetles would be the adult stage, the worm stage of the meal worm has no legs, but the stage in between sorta might look like it does. To me, they look like an alien. What are you feeding them? If you were thinking a sifter I would use an old juice strainer for a small one. A bit larger would be one made to clean the sand in a reptile cage.

 

[HelpTurtleandTortoise]

Not an expert on the bugs but, the black beetles would be the adult stage, the worm stage of the meal worm has no legs, but the stage in between sorta might look like it does. To me, they look like an alien. What are you feeding them? If you were thinking a sifter I would use an old juice strainer for a small one. A bit larger would be one made to clean the sand in a reptile cage.

Thanks, I'll try that juice strainer. I'm not feeding the worms and beetles anything. There is small wood shavings in the aquarium, but i havent been putting anything else in there food or water wise. I dont have a clue on what to feed them.