Turtles are hatching!!

[01C5Vert]

So a long time ago I was an avid breeder of snakes and eccentric reptile collector. Before I had children I had an entire room dedicated to my reptile collection. I had professional racks, bred my own mice, and had huge tanks for my turtles. I have since had two children and moved so my "collection" has thinned considerably, as has my time to spend herping.

Well you can imagine how excited I was when I found a clutch of small turtle eggs while digging for worms at my favorite fishing hole. I would have sworn they were going to be painted turtles because the place is crawling with them. This was two months ago. They just started hatching this weekend..........AND.....they turned out to be mud turtles!! At least I think they are, Mud and Musk turtles are nearly impossible to tell apart before a certain age.

I am really psyched, I love these tiny little things!! They are each about the size of a dime. I was actually thinking of buying a few at the start of the season, I'm glad I did'nt as I know have 5 with 4 more eggs to go.

Here are a couple videos for anyone that is interested.

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I think I'm going start them off and release them early next spring/summer.

 

[Conner]

Aww, cute little buggers! And that one is a glutton, trying to eat that whole earthworm!

 

[jason longboard]

man its got some big bolies

 

[coura]

Thouse are stink pots Sternoterus odoratus. Be really carefull with the ones that still have the egg sak atached to them, preferably wait for a few days with them on a sterile conteiner with moist paper untill you put them on the water. Also dont feed untill it has been absorved. But really good job haching them