Nick V.
New Member
Hello everyone! Let me start by explaining myself first and how my perception has sort of changed over the years in terms of turtle and tortoise keeping, or just reptile keeping in general. As a child I used to have the typical leopard geckos and bearded dragons, but I've always had an interest in turtle species. I used to beg my dad when we drove over the state lines into PA to stop at a pet store to look at the turtles, since they aren't sold in NJ. On a few occasions we would come home with one. Nothing too fancy, just red eared sliders and a Mississippi map turtle. I can say, without much pride, that we would find baby turtles on occasion and put them in our koi pond. I did not know very much, and began to just take home whatever I would find to throw into the pond. Some of which were (unknowingly) protected species. Being only a child, and having a father who did not know the differences in chelonian species or the laws around such species, it became a regular thing for us. It was eventually realized when going with my dad to the pet stores that the things we were keeping were certainly illegal, and we were urged to return these animals back to where we found them by some of the employees we would talk to. Whether or not that was a good thing, considering our pond was a communal habitat and could have been a source of pathogen transfer, we returned what we had.
I felt guilt for what we had done but I didn't give up on the hobby, I instead further educated myself on the different species of turtles and tortoises and read up on such books in my teenage years like "North American Box Turtles: A Natural History" and learned that not only are these animals and so many species of these animals are declining, but I learned of all the different anatomical and physiological characteristics of different species throughout the world. Since I was twelve, I was very lucky to receive and still keep two Florida box turtles from a pet store employee who gave them to us because he couldn't care for them any more. Something even more fortunate, is that after raising these two individuals to adulthood I had a pair. I have since been producing Florida box turtles for the past couple of years. I continued to keep various python and lizard species into my college (present-day) years, but in high school I met a truly remarkable and dedicated individual by the name of Raymond Farrell. I am not sure if he is a member on here, but I am sure some of you happen to know him. I went to the Hamburg reptile expo to buy supplies and I was hoping to acquire a new turtle species while I was there. I went there with my heart set on Emys orbicularis hellenica, and there were plenty of vendors supplying them. When I went through the last isle before I made a decision on who to buy pond turtles from, I noticed a man with nothing but dozens of Cuora flavamarginata hatchlings that really stood out to me. This guy was Mr. Farrell, and he told me everything and anything there is to know about keeping and breeding this species. Though I was familiar with their care, I was still very pleased by how much information he was providing me. Not to mention, he told about how what he is doing with this species is for conservation of the species, that he had somewhere around 50 or more producing adults, and he even notched his hatchlings to distinguish them from each other. I bought one temperature sexed male and one temperature sexed female from that are now juveniles. I thought about how I wanted to do something like that with my animals in my personal collection, and help with the conservation of a species. So, I began with these Chinese box turtles.
In addition to the other odds and ends we had, I also had people bringing me animals they can no longer care for or just couldn't be bothered with. This included a sulcata fed nothing but lettuce his whole life and he was about 1' in a 75 gallon tank, barely able to turn around. We essentially designated our living room (luckily we had 2 living rooms) the room for an enormous 8' x 4' plywood box as his winter home. During the summer he had the run of our yard, and soon became dog-like in terms of personality and walking up to you for food. We gave him a proper diet high in fiber, full of mixed grasses, some succulents, and had offered him the occasional vegetable treat. Unfortunately, his shell was going to be permanently deformed, but that didn't stop him from growing like a weed. So, we ended up rehoming him to someone who keeps multiple sulcatas and has the housing and land space for them. As far as tortoises go, I have kept Ibera Greeks, redfoots, and yellowfoots, but my interest really lied with the true exotic and threatened species. This past summer I acquired 3 Burmese star tortoises that are just nothing short of spectacular. I chose this species not only because of their conservation status, but the fact that they are such a hardy and colorful species as well. One hatchling did come from a member on here, Chris Leone, who most of you probably know. For those of you who don't know him, he is a passionate dedicated individual who produces fantastic healthy animals he truly cares about. Right now, I currently have 1.1 subadult C. flavomarginata, 1.2 T. c. bauri, 3 TSF G. platynota, and 0.1 C. carbonaria, and I plan on allowing the number of species I work with to keep growing. In addition to having a totally changed mindset about reptile and turtle/tortoise keeping, I have began to dedicate my life to serve and protect wildlife. I am currently enrolled as a full-time student studying wildlife management and conservation as my major, and I will hopefully work with USFWS one day. I'm even doing an internship abroad this coming summer where I will be a field research assistant surveying a variety of endemic species, including the radiated tortoise. Sorry for the long post, but I feel like I had to properly introduce myself on here! I'll be posting pics of my collection soon for everyone to see, thanks for reading!
I felt guilt for what we had done but I didn't give up on the hobby, I instead further educated myself on the different species of turtles and tortoises and read up on such books in my teenage years like "North American Box Turtles: A Natural History" and learned that not only are these animals and so many species of these animals are declining, but I learned of all the different anatomical and physiological characteristics of different species throughout the world. Since I was twelve, I was very lucky to receive and still keep two Florida box turtles from a pet store employee who gave them to us because he couldn't care for them any more. Something even more fortunate, is that after raising these two individuals to adulthood I had a pair. I have since been producing Florida box turtles for the past couple of years. I continued to keep various python and lizard species into my college (present-day) years, but in high school I met a truly remarkable and dedicated individual by the name of Raymond Farrell. I am not sure if he is a member on here, but I am sure some of you happen to know him. I went to the Hamburg reptile expo to buy supplies and I was hoping to acquire a new turtle species while I was there. I went there with my heart set on Emys orbicularis hellenica, and there were plenty of vendors supplying them. When I went through the last isle before I made a decision on who to buy pond turtles from, I noticed a man with nothing but dozens of Cuora flavamarginata hatchlings that really stood out to me. This guy was Mr. Farrell, and he told me everything and anything there is to know about keeping and breeding this species. Though I was familiar with their care, I was still very pleased by how much information he was providing me. Not to mention, he told about how what he is doing with this species is for conservation of the species, that he had somewhere around 50 or more producing adults, and he even notched his hatchlings to distinguish them from each other. I bought one temperature sexed male and one temperature sexed female from that are now juveniles. I thought about how I wanted to do something like that with my animals in my personal collection, and help with the conservation of a species. So, I began with these Chinese box turtles.
In addition to the other odds and ends we had, I also had people bringing me animals they can no longer care for or just couldn't be bothered with. This included a sulcata fed nothing but lettuce his whole life and he was about 1' in a 75 gallon tank, barely able to turn around. We essentially designated our living room (luckily we had 2 living rooms) the room for an enormous 8' x 4' plywood box as his winter home. During the summer he had the run of our yard, and soon became dog-like in terms of personality and walking up to you for food. We gave him a proper diet high in fiber, full of mixed grasses, some succulents, and had offered him the occasional vegetable treat. Unfortunately, his shell was going to be permanently deformed, but that didn't stop him from growing like a weed. So, we ended up rehoming him to someone who keeps multiple sulcatas and has the housing and land space for them. As far as tortoises go, I have kept Ibera Greeks, redfoots, and yellowfoots, but my interest really lied with the true exotic and threatened species. This past summer I acquired 3 Burmese star tortoises that are just nothing short of spectacular. I chose this species not only because of their conservation status, but the fact that they are such a hardy and colorful species as well. One hatchling did come from a member on here, Chris Leone, who most of you probably know. For those of you who don't know him, he is a passionate dedicated individual who produces fantastic healthy animals he truly cares about. Right now, I currently have 1.1 subadult C. flavomarginata, 1.2 T. c. bauri, 3 TSF G. platynota, and 0.1 C. carbonaria, and I plan on allowing the number of species I work with to keep growing. In addition to having a totally changed mindset about reptile and turtle/tortoise keeping, I have began to dedicate my life to serve and protect wildlife. I am currently enrolled as a full-time student studying wildlife management and conservation as my major, and I will hopefully work with USFWS one day. I'm even doing an internship abroad this coming summer where I will be a field research assistant surveying a variety of endemic species, including the radiated tortoise. Sorry for the long post, but I feel like I had to properly introduce myself on here! I'll be posting pics of my collection soon for everyone to see, thanks for reading!
