what tpe of turtle do i have?

Question

my son found a turtle at the wildernest resort this weekend. it has white spots on the head and looks to be black on the back of the shell. age is about 6 weeks old from what i was told. need to know how to care for it :D

Answer 1

It is Not illegal to harvest turtles, frogs, or other amphibians and reptiles. If you get your local Fishing guide, they actually have daily limits for the harvesting of these animals. The only restriction is that you can't harvest them for commercial sale.

The turtle could be any number of species, depending on where it was found, both which state and was it in water or under leaves?

Does it have a soft leathery shell? Does the shell have a line of ridges along the middle of the back? Is it leaf shaped on the edges or is it round? What color is it's underbelly? What shape is it's nose? Is it a birdlike nose, a piglike nose, or is it something else?

Around here, I'd have guessed map turtle or yellow slider. But, a map turtle has ridges along the back and yellow marks on it's underbelly, it also has a rounded snout. A slider has "Nike" swoosh spots on its face, yellow belly, no back ridges, and it has a bird like beak.

Please update your info so that we can give you the best guess we can.

Answer 2

1. An easy way to ID most turtles is to do a Google search for '(your state) turtle'. Most states have a website that has guides to local wildlife.

You can also try the World of Turtles gallery at http://www.austinsturtlepage.com

2. This sounds like it may be a Spotted Turtle, but without more info, or at least the part of the country you are in, that may not be at all accurate.

3. Different states have different rules about wild turtles. Some protect all of them, some allow collection with the proper permits, some only protect some. (Spotteds are usually protected in most places.) Even with these laws in place, few states will 'bust' you for this.

4. Wild turtles DO make poor pets, however. They do not thrive in captivity, take more work than captive-bred turtles do, and generally cause more stress than happiness.

Please consider releasing it- ideally within a mile of where it was caught.

5. The age guess sounds like a guess based on a likely hatching date. A baby wild turtle is even more trouble to care for than an adult.

6. Here is some basic care info for a generic pond turtle:
- Big tank, at least 10 gallons to start, but try to provide about 10 gallons per linear inch of shell length.
- Warm water- aim for 75-80F (a bit cooler for some, such as Spotteds)
- Clean water- use a good external filter rated for about 3 times bigger than the tank size.
- Basking- avoid rocks, but provide a safe, smooth, easy to climb basking site, and heat it between 85-90F
- Lighting- besides good general tank lighting, offer UVB lighting as well.
- Diet- most young pond turtles are meat-eaters. Use about 1/2 good quality pellets, and the rest live or frozen/thawed 'fish food' like crickets, worms, shrimp, krill, etc.

Just FYI- it runs about $150 to set up a good turtle habitat. In the 'old days' we did it more cheaply, but those habitats killed turtles in pretty nasty ways.

Good luck!

Answer 3

PLEASE RETURN THE TURTLE! If the resort is too far away take him to a local nature preserve in your area.

If you think he is 6 weeks old, he is probably the size of a silver dollar? Baby turtles are very hard to keep for someone who does not know what they are doing. They need more than just a bowl of water with an island and a palm tree. Please don't make this turtle your experiment and victim.

It is also illegal to keep any wild animal captive.

Answer 4

please put it back where you found it, not only is it illegal to take turtles, tortoises, and frogs from the wild, they are not used to being in captive situations and will slowly die of stress and probably mal treatment. you took it from a resort too? ouch... theres some big fines for that. he needs a reptisun 8.0 uvb lightbulb with the holder, that will cost 60$ all together., he needs a basking bulb with proper holder-30$ he needs a infared nightime bulb this will cost about 30 as well. if it is a water turtle it will need a swimming area that is the width of his shell tall and about about 1 foot of swimming area per inch of shell. the water needs to be conditioned and cycled and they need a land and basking area. full grown you are going to have to get a rather large setup....plus getting a wild caught turtle has a huge risk of having illness, mites, parasites, bacteria, salmonella, and will most likely not survive. how about taking it back or buying a captive bred one instead?!

http://wnyherp.org/care-sheets/turtles/
this site has caresheets and pictures, find the turtle you have, give it everything and more than it needs....

Answer 5

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Answer 6

It is a bit difficult to say for certain over the Internet, but these three types are the moist likely.
One of the problems is not knowing where you are, another problem is not being able to see it.
Most diagrams for identification exaggerate the markings on turtles. But you should be able to make them out.
I suspect a Wood Turtle., but it might be a box turtle.

The best way of caring for it is to let it go where you found it. (but not on a road)

http://www.ben.edu/museum/northamericanwoodturtle.asp
http://www.arkive.org/species/GES/reptiles/Glyptemys_insculpta/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotted_Turtle

http://aboxturtle.com/

Answer 7

You should check somewhere on the internet, some turtles are illegal to keep. If it is only 6 weeks it should be extremely easy to get it used to captivety.

Try exoticpets.com

Answer 8

if there is a local reptile place near where you live go an d ask them about it they'd need to see exactly what it looks like and then they will be able to help you out