TurtleTab
Member
- Joined
- Aug 11, 2014
- Messages
- 81
I am TurtleTab. I've loved turtles since I was five years old. A box turtle was the first pet I ever had and the only pet I can get lost in caring for. Over the years I've had my share of turtles and as an unknowing child, I've neglected many. I'm not proud and I'm disappointed that I was allowed to care for those turtles. I was like most people....thinking "A turtle is easy to care for. Drop it in the basement, throw some lettuce at it, and just stare at it every now and then." What an awful way to think. What a neglectful way to think!! So as I grew, I was given more and more turtles. I had them all named. I played with every single one of them on a daily basis. I used to sew clothes on them. I drove them in barbie cars. I slid them down slides. I swam in the pool with them. I did not know I was torturing them. So I grew more and learned more about turtles. They did not like to be handled. They didn't like slides. They didn't like clothes nor pools nor basements. Only one turtle survived the hell I made them endure and his name is Allen. I had him since I was 12 years old. I've had him now for 21 years. He is a three-toed box turtle that was given to me by my mom's friend, Alison, hence Allen's name. He had a big white spray painted spot on his back that I now know is markings of a turtle race victim. He did not lose this paint until two years ago when I gave him a turtle garden, outside. He needed sunshine and dirt. For 19 years, he lived in plastic containers, indoors, in the basement, in glass tanks, wherever we put him. But I did my research and I learned how to take care of Allen....FINALLY. No more lettuce. I gave him a new life, a life that he deserved all because I educated myself about my favorite animal. So, although I am new to the correct way of treating turtles, I have been a fan of turtles since I was five years old. I never purposely harmed any turtle. I've always tried to take care of them the best way I knew how. Now I know how.
Allen lives in a 14 foot by 4 foot turtle garden with burrows, two water holes, a waterway leading from one hole to the next, a hibernation den, hostas, blackberry bush, and a strawberry bush. He also had a wife named Bedelia (like Amelia Bedelia, the book). Bedelia was given to me by my husband's co-worker. I DO NOT take turtles from the wild. People give them to me because THEY take turtles from the wild. I never know where they come from therefore I feel I must now rescue them from the turtlenappers. Anyways, Allen's favorite foods are corn right off the cob, strawberries, tomatoes, and big juicy worms. He has also favored bananas since Bedelia can smell a banana from a mile away. She will chase down a banana and chomp it til it's gone. Well, Bedelia ran away last month. I don't know how or why or where she went. She just disappeared. I've placed bananas all over the yard and still no sign of her. She must have left Allen for good. But she left three fertilized eggs behind with Allen. They are currently 57 days old. One hatched prematurely yesterday and I'm afraid Lux will not make it much longer. he is just too small and frail, barely any movement. But I have hope. Lux may live if I leave him alone and let him absorb his yolk sac. As for Allen, when I went on vacation last week, Allen and his two roommates decided to go on vacation, too. I am yet to find them. Obviously, the walls need to be redone. I don't see how they climbed over the walls...usually there is a spot where I can tell they climbed, but no....3 turtles, completely gone....just disappeared from my yard, too. I'm scared someone stole them or someone found them and they are living in a basement unable to digest food...if they eat at all. Anyways...I have hope in them returning too. I am missing 4 box turtles and waiting for two hatchlings to hatch, incubating a new hatchling, and taking care of a neglected russian tortoise named Begonia. Oh...Begonia. She is a rescue that I found on CL. Apparently, her caretaker had passed away and the nephew wanted to sell him to anyone for $30. I took one look at "him" and knew I made the right choice of buying him. His beak was way overgrown passed his lower jaw. His nails on all four legs were long and unclipped. His shell seemed dented in places. And as I stared longer at the tail...."He" was a "SHE"!! He went from "Shelton" (the name they gave me) to Begonia. Never lived outside, always in a tank. I made her an enclosure outside, dug a two way tunnel into a hill so she can crawl in and out of, and played hide and seek a lot together. She gets out, I find her, and she does it again. Not as much because I've learned new tricks to keeping her inside...but the biggest problem is that she is trying to get out. I need to grow more lettuce and greens and plants inside her enclosure to keep her wanting to stay home. She's just now starting to trust me.
Allen lives in a 14 foot by 4 foot turtle garden with burrows, two water holes, a waterway leading from one hole to the next, a hibernation den, hostas, blackberry bush, and a strawberry bush. He also had a wife named Bedelia (like Amelia Bedelia, the book). Bedelia was given to me by my husband's co-worker. I DO NOT take turtles from the wild. People give them to me because THEY take turtles from the wild. I never know where they come from therefore I feel I must now rescue them from the turtlenappers. Anyways, Allen's favorite foods are corn right off the cob, strawberries, tomatoes, and big juicy worms. He has also favored bananas since Bedelia can smell a banana from a mile away. She will chase down a banana and chomp it til it's gone. Well, Bedelia ran away last month. I don't know how or why or where she went. She just disappeared. I've placed bananas all over the yard and still no sign of her. She must have left Allen for good. But she left three fertilized eggs behind with Allen. They are currently 57 days old. One hatched prematurely yesterday and I'm afraid Lux will not make it much longer. he is just too small and frail, barely any movement. But I have hope. Lux may live if I leave him alone and let him absorb his yolk sac. As for Allen, when I went on vacation last week, Allen and his two roommates decided to go on vacation, too. I am yet to find them. Obviously, the walls need to be redone. I don't see how they climbed over the walls...usually there is a spot where I can tell they climbed, but no....3 turtles, completely gone....just disappeared from my yard, too. I'm scared someone stole them or someone found them and they are living in a basement unable to digest food...if they eat at all. Anyways...I have hope in them returning too. I am missing 4 box turtles and waiting for two hatchlings to hatch, incubating a new hatchling, and taking care of a neglected russian tortoise named Begonia. Oh...Begonia. She is a rescue that I found on CL. Apparently, her caretaker had passed away and the nephew wanted to sell him to anyone for $30. I took one look at "him" and knew I made the right choice of buying him. His beak was way overgrown passed his lower jaw. His nails on all four legs were long and unclipped. His shell seemed dented in places. And as I stared longer at the tail...."He" was a "SHE"!! He went from "Shelton" (the name they gave me) to Begonia. Never lived outside, always in a tank. I made her an enclosure outside, dug a two way tunnel into a hill so she can crawl in and out of, and played hide and seek a lot together. She gets out, I find her, and she does it again. Not as much because I've learned new tricks to keeping her inside...but the biggest problem is that she is trying to get out. I need to grow more lettuce and greens and plants inside her enclosure to keep her wanting to stay home. She's just now starting to trust me.
