Southern Painted Update

Paschendale52

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Apr 23, 2015
Messages
236
Hello everyone!

I just wanted to put up some recent pictures of my two southern painted turtles. They are easily distinguished by their different sized stripes. I don't know sexes and don't know how long it takes to be able to tell, but Little Boy (thin stripe) has gotten quite a bit larger than Fat Man (thick stripe) in the last couple of months. Yes they are named after the nuclear weapons, I had just finished Richard Rhodes "The Making of the Atom Bomb" when I got them. Its an excellent read if you are at all interested in history, physics, or the history of physics. We also call them skinny and fatty for short.

First up Little Boy. He started as the shy one, but has gotten larger in size and appetite lately. I feed them together in their main tank on mostly Mazuri aquatic turtle pellets, but occasionally dried, frozen blood worms or an earthworm from outdoors. Its pretty fun watching them fight over an earthworm that is longer than both of them combined, but they usually get most of it and I remove the rest.DSC_2863.JPG

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Here they are together, skinny is on the right. If it wasn't for their stripes the names would seem totally backwards now : O

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Fatty seemed pretty calm and collected when I picked him up, just looking around.

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If anyone has any general comments about their health, sex, etc. that can be determined from these pictures or would like others I would appreciate the input. I'm definitely still learning a lot about these little guys. They are a lot of fun to watch and are very active. They don't seem to bask very much, but their water is fairly warm, around 79-80F. They are fearless at feeding time and will swim towards my hand so much that they almost jump out of the water, but if they are basking on their rock and so much as hear a sound from us coming in the house or moving they dive into the water.

Thanks for taking the time to check these guys out. : )
 

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Markw84

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10 Year Member!
Platinum Tortoise Club
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Jan 17, 2012
Messages
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Location (City and/or State)
Sacramento, CA (Central Valley)
They are looking great, Will. They are obviously well cared for and love your custom built tank

I usually don't see sexual characteristics until they are about 3" or so. The male starts getting a noticeably larger tail and those long claws on the front feet start to develop

Looks like classic pure southerns with the totally immaculate plastron. Again, great job!
 

Nicole M

Active Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Jun 8, 2016
Messages
161
Hello everyone!

I just wanted to put up some recent pictures of my two southern painted turtles. They are easily distinguished by their different sized stripes. I don't know sexes and don't know how long it takes to be able to tell, but Little Boy (thin stripe) has gotten quite a bit larger than Fat Man (thick stripe) in the last couple of months. Yes they are named after the nuclear weapons, I had just finished Richard Rhodes "The Making of the Atom Bomb" when I got them. Its an excellent read if you are at all interested in history, physics, or the history of physics. We also call them skinny and fatty for short.

First up Little Boy. He started as the shy one, but has gotten larger in size and appetite lately. I feed them together in their main tank on mostly Mazuri aquatic turtle pellets, but occasionally dried, frozen blood worms or an earthworm from outdoors. Its pretty fun watching them fight over an earthworm that is longer than both of them combined, but they usually get most of it and I remove the rest.View attachment 176992

View attachment 176993

Here they are together, skinny is on the right. If it wasn't for their stripes the names would seem totally backwards now : O

View attachment 176994

Fatty seemed pretty calm and collected when I picked him up, just looking around.

View attachment 176996

If anyone has any general comments about their health, sex, etc. that can be determined from these pictures or would like others I would appreciate the input. I'm definitely still learning a lot about these little guys. They are a lot of fun to watch and are very active. They don't seem to bask very much, but their water is fairly warm, around 79-80F. They are fearless at feeding time and will swim towards my hand so much that they almost jump out of the water, but if they are basking on their rock and so much as hear a sound from us coming in the house or moving they dive into the water.

Thanks for taking the time to check these guys out. : )
Turtles named after nuclear weapons?! That's interesting. Hahaha, definitely haven't heard that before.

Gorgeous, happy little turtles. Excited to see them grow! Great job with them so far. :)
 

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