Kyle, if you want in on that turtle trip I have a guest pass. We'll be in a camp that they just spent 100K on rennovations. I haven't seen it since but stayed in it with another family member back in the late 80's and it was nice then. June 15th.
Tiga, that is great! It is always wonderful when girls grow out of the bitter teenage stuff and remember that their daddies are the best men in the world. Glad she made it safely out of the younger teenage years!
Consider this a confession. I have 5 pet turtles now. I don't think I could kill one now. I just get too much enjoyment out of my pets. I have 4 box turtles and 2 African sulcutta tortises. I used to keep the box turtles in a plastic baby pool with hide boxes and substrate they could dig into, but when I got the tortises I had to fence in my yard. The tortises are grazers and they need access to lots of grass. They actually do a really nice job of keeping the grass short. The box turtles need a wider variety, so i put out plates of berries, grapes, boiled eggs, and boiled chicken a few times a week. I also built a worm garden, and the four of them will congregate there after a rain to gobble up the workms coming out of the ground. One of the box turtles comes to the back door at about 6 o clock every night to be fed. On the rare night she isn't there, she will come when I call her name. I am hoping for a few clutches of eggs. I could sell the baby tortises for about 80 bucks a pop, and they normally lay clutches of 20-25 eggs.
I would love to be able to raise them too. In fact my daughter wanted to keep/raise an alligator snapper that I released. With those (which are the ones I'd like to keep as pets) it would need a muddy pond, ideally. Given that, I'm not sure how much I would enjoy having them, really. There would be a pit with snapping turtles buried. The one I cleaned yesterday had 28 eggs. Probably won't work but I did bury them in a raised bed. Want to see if they hatch.
I have hatched them like that. If the dirt stays moist, but not wet, and the eggs are fertile to begin with they will hatch.
Man this afternoon I had one BIG softshell and two small ones. The big one was 16 inches long and 12 wide. Anxious to clean/cook him. Have never tried it but here it's as good if not better. Don't know why my dam photobucket won't let me upload. Supa, I can't see the pics you posted but can see other pics in this thread. Not sure wat up. The two small softshells are cute. You are welcome to them. I have a pic of them too, if I can figure out what's wrong with photobucket. I plan to release them at a State Park.
Like Anderson Cooper would say, "We interupt this thread to bring you the latest developments..." Two pics, same turtle.
