the cute little bugger's out and about now, so i got some more shots. hope these will help figure out what he is. whether he was hibernating or just napping, he's definitely awake now lol
turtle people! i need your help!
- Thread starter deeleywoman
- Start date
Yellow-bellied slider?
Certainly looks like an aquatic, anyway, and I believe their care is pretty similar. Does your little guy have access to water in his tub? They spend most of their time in water.
Sometimes aquatic turtles (and maybe other kinds of turtles---I don't know) whose eggs were laid late in the season hatch but do not leave the nest. They stay underground until the following spring. I'm guessing that's what happened to this one. If that's the case he wouldn't have grown much (if at all) because he didn't eat anything---just hatched and hibernated. That would explain his presence underground this time of year. It would also explain why the ground didn't look disturbed; the nest was dug quite some time ago.
EDIT: Good care sheet for yellow-bellies here: http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/cs-yellowbelly.htm
Certainly looks like an aquatic, anyway, and I believe their care is pretty similar. Does your little guy have access to water in his tub? They spend most of their time in water.
Sometimes aquatic turtles (and maybe other kinds of turtles---I don't know) whose eggs were laid late in the season hatch but do not leave the nest. They stay underground until the following spring. I'm guessing that's what happened to this one. If that's the case he wouldn't have grown much (if at all) because he didn't eat anything---just hatched and hibernated. That would explain his presence underground this time of year. It would also explain why the ground didn't look disturbed; the nest was dug quite some time ago.
EDIT: Good care sheet for yellow-bellies here: http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/cs-yellowbelly.htm
it would have to have been a long time ago; we moved in here in october, and i darn sure would have noticed a turtle laying eggs, or if a nest had been dug up in front of my front door. this is just amazing to me...
i've been considering slider, but he doesn't have anything behind his eyes... it's just the same stripes as the rest of his head/neck. i'm nearly convinced that he's some sort of cooter, though slider is still a possibility. in the natural light that is starting to take over my living/dining room, i can see that his belly is reddish/orange from the outside almost all the way into the middle, where it is very yellow. and his feet are definitely webbed.
he does have water; i filled a terra cotta dish with water and built up the dirt/rocks to both sides of the edge so that it's more natural, but i've yet to see him in the water. he's pretty active, though, so i'm less worried than i was five hours ago.
i've been considering slider, but he doesn't have anything behind his eyes... it's just the same stripes as the rest of his head/neck. i'm nearly convinced that he's some sort of cooter, though slider is still a possibility. in the natural light that is starting to take over my living/dining room, i can see that his belly is reddish/orange from the outside almost all the way into the middle, where it is very yellow. and his feet are definitely webbed.
he does have water; i filled a terra cotta dish with water and built up the dirt/rocks to both sides of the edge so that it's more natural, but i've yet to see him in the water. he's pretty active, though, so i'm less worried than i was five hours ago.
Wow, congrats! Looks like you have yourself a baby Eastern River Cooter! I'm going to guess that you live near some body of water. I would bring the little guy indoors and place it in a warm, shallow tub of water until it wakes up and is active. Depending how warm the days have been you might be able to release it. Most likely it's not the only one you will be finding. A female could have laid eggs near where you were digging. Or perhaps this guy hatched in the fall and dug a hole and hibernated there.
that's very likely, as my backyard is the big bethel reservoir... as i've said a few times, i'm just amazed by this.... the reservoir is surrounded 100% by an uber-tight chain-link fence, because it's government property. to think that a great big pregnant female turtle found a passable entry point in that fence and made it to my doorstep before i was even here.... just blows my mind, ya know? ^_^
is there any point in taking him to the vet, then? as i said, i've searched him for signs of damage and found none, and he's running all about the tub now, eyes wide open and eagerly exploring and digging.
is there any point in taking him to the vet, then? as i said, i've searched him for signs of damage and found none, and he's running all about the tub now, eyes wide open and eagerly exploring and digging.
No, there is no reason to take the turtle to the vet then. It sounds like a healthy, active baby turtle. I guess the next step is to decide if you want to keep it or release it.
