Hi! Yesterday I found a turtle that was walking around a busy road so I brought her home and refilled my 400 gallon pond. The turtle has a dented shell that looks like a gator bite her. (Though it looks like its healed) She is 11 inches long and 8 inches wide. I want to fill the pond a little higher (to give her swimming room) but I dont want her to excape so I was wondering if I netted the pond and anchored it down with heavy rocks will that keep her in?
Rescued Turtle
- Thread starter ScubaChick0121
- Start date
Here's a good care sheet. It will cover basically any type of Cooter or Red-Belly.
http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/cs-flredbelly.htm
You can cover your pond with a net but keeping the water level low enough that it can't climb out works good too. That's how I kept my turtle ponds in the past.
http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/cs-flredbelly.htm
You can cover your pond with a net but keeping the water level low enough that it can't climb out works good too. That's how I kept my turtle ponds in the past.
However keeping water low will deprive her of exercise and enrichement and also the oportunity to termoregulate apropriatly. Dont use the net, fill the pond and make some kind of garden fence around the pond, that will allow your turtle to swim and bask. Also what is the sex of your turtle? Males have long claws in the front fingers and longer ticker tails. Because your turtle may be a female looking for a place to lay her eggs, wich is a very likely cause for her to leave the safety of her normal water way. Also her size points to a female. If she is a female looking for a place to lay you absolutley must provide her with a good amount of soft substrate alongside your pond, like a beach with some nontoxic bushes here and there like Hibiscus so that she has the condicions to lay. If you arent able to arrange that in the next cople of days you should really consider releasing her in a permanent body of water close to where you found here. Even if you can arrange the condicions needed, I highly sugest this later hipotesis, she took like 20 or so years in the wild to reach the size you find her, remenbar female turtles are VERY precious to their populations and you have to consider not only her life but also the life of the eggs she may be carrying inside her wich are very likely fertile. If by some reason like stress she is unable to lay them she will become egg bound wich requires expensive vet atencion to fix and the babys will likely die. That also means that if you keep her, you would have to arrange some kind incubation for the eggs.
You DID the rigth thing in saving her from the road, now why not do the complete cycle and let her return to the place where she spent her woule life? If you want a turtle why not buy a beautifull captive bred hachling of one of the many dozen species avaible or better yet, give a home to a rescued one, from a rescue center?
You DID the rigth thing in saving her from the road, now why not do the complete cycle and let her return to the place where she spent her woule life? If you want a turtle why not buy a beautifull captive bred hachling of one of the many dozen species avaible or better yet, give a home to a rescued one, from a rescue center?
ok thanks i am going to release her, i know its a female because of the very short claws and the short tail. thanks again!