I'm home for the holidays, so I don't have my field guide with me, but I think that you have a striped mud turtle. Because of their somewhat long tails, large heads and snappy dispositions, mud/musk turtles are often mistaken for small snappers. But those three stripes give it away, I think, because I can't recall any other turtle in the US that has three (baby or adult). If it is, in fact, the striped mud turtle, then the stripes will fade with age.
Most mud turtles rarely exceed 5" in shell length. I do agree with most everyone here, in that wild animals (at least reptiles anyway) should stay in the wild. Any small body of water will do fine; most aquatic turtles are opportunists, and they have thousands (if not millions) of years of instinct to survive on their own.
Most mud turtles rarely exceed 5" in shell length. I do agree with most everyone here, in that wild animals (at least reptiles anyway) should stay in the wild. Any small body of water will do fine; most aquatic turtles are opportunists, and they have thousands (if not millions) of years of instinct to survive on their own.
