a turtle story

pica_nuttalli

don't be a twit
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ok to start off:

my bf has this pet turtle that he's kept for over ten years now. for the most part he kept Turtle in a plastic potted plant reservoir, a cheap 2.5" deep one. (it has since been upgraded to an actual turtle tank.)

somewhere along the way, Turtle had grown large enough that it could pull itself over the edge of the bowl and go wandering around the apartment. it was actually kind of funny to watch the turtle pull itself up and then wait until it thought we weren't looking to rock itself over the edge. then it'd go scurrying around the table investigating the fish tanks and just generally poking around. when it saw one of us coming to get it, Turtle would start running back towards its bowl to "escape" back into the water.

but when winter came around, Turtle started also jumping off the table and trying to find places to hibernate. (fortunately, its a coffee table and less than 2 feet off the ground.) almost everyday, my boyfriend would come in from class and have to hunt through the entire apartment for Turtle. we found it in any number of amusing places including inside a paper bag and in a pile of laundry, but this is by far my favorite: (we had searched everywhere before we noticed him)
nintendo.jpg

i guess everybody loves nintendo...
 
awwww so cute!you should get a lid for his tank!
i want him he looks so cheeky
 
Awww Cute,

"So You Found me - so what - ya know I am gonna hide again tommorrow."
 
oh i know! Turtle is so much fun, but it seems to think i'm edible!! its really funny; i'll go over to look at it in the tank and it always swims up to the glass to give me a good looking over. if i put my finger up to the glass, sometimes it'll just snap at it, and others it pulls its face way back and blow bubbles at me! a couple of times Turtle has put its claws over its face and tried to dig its way through the glass to get to me! i'm just glad it's not any bigger or it'd really be an exciting pet! :lol:

Turtle's not very friendly, but it's very interactive. Makes me want to get one for myself... But I don't think I'm really up to owning a large aquatic reptile for the next 20-odd years. :X

(the perspective on this picture is rather deceptive; Turtle's actually a lot bigger than that--about 6 inches long. too small for his age, but not tiny!)
 
how large is he? i recently got a turtle and I'm trying to gauge how large it would get... assuming it makes it 10 years
 
pica_nuttalli said:
well, he's *supposed* to be about a foot across... but he's not any bigger than my hand, so i'd say ~6 inches
good to hear....

quite frankly i'm sick of the 'omg you need at least a golf-course sized pond in order for this or that to live happily

well okay, i'm sure that if i was a millionaire with acres of land all my pets would be happy, but unfortunately i'm just a poor college student, and i'm sure the conditions i provide for my fish and turtle are the best they had ever seen at the breeder or LFS's, so I think he's happier at my home than he would be there or at anybody who was uneducated's home.
 
er, actually Turtle's just stunted is all--being underfed and underwatered for almost a decade'll do that. since i got my boyfriend to start taking proper care of it, Turtle's grown an inch in the last year... so really they're right saying that you eventually need a pond of sorts to properly care for your turtle.
 
The-Raven said:
pica_nuttalli said:
well, he's *supposed* to be about a foot across... but he's not any bigger than my hand, so i'd say ~6 inches
good to hear....

quite frankly i'm sick of the 'omg you need at least a golf-course sized pond in order for this or that to live happily

well okay, i'm sure that if i was a millionaire with acres of land all my pets would be happy, but unfortunately i'm just a poor college student, and i'm sure the conditions i provide for my fish and turtle are the best they had ever seen at the breeder or LFS's, so I think he's happier at my home than he would be there or at anybody who was uneducated's home.
No offense, but I really, really, really hate that sort of attitude. If you can't take care of it properly, don't get it!!!! If you live in an appartment, don't get a Great Dane. If you don't have a big enough tank, don't get a turtle/fish etc. It's really that simple. Just because the petshop/breeder/whoever does it doesn't mean that it's okay for you to do, too. The fewer people who crowd their fish, the better. If you're a poor college student now, wait. That's what I did, and my fish are a lot happier for it, believe me.
 

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