Long term readers are aware that I do have a pet that seldom makes it into these pages. My turtle, Baron, is around 36 years old and usually is miserable from April to September. He has gotten better over the years but is by no means tame. If he is hungry he will swim over and acknowledge you.
Oddly, he is the only member of the household who enjoys the heatwave. When I place a heater in his tank it is normally set at 85 and he is holding up well. I have gotten away from bringing the live food. However, he has a nasty fungal infection and gets them a few times a year. An inexpensive tropical fish fungal remedy usually fixes things in 72 hours.
While I was at the store I got him some live food 25 goldfish, 3 snails and dug up a few worms from the yard. His color is back to normal in five hours and the food is all gone. I have yet to actually see him extract a snail but he somehow does this. Of course now that he is well fed he will ignore everyone unless he smells chicken. I also give him small shrimp uncooked.
He is hand trained and will grab cooked chicken from your hands. I discourage my nieces from doing this as this can be dangerous given his size, but they do it anyway.
Childhood friends are amazed that the he is still around. Most are on second cats or dogs.
He will now return to blog anonymity.
He did star in a video in college. Meat you don't need brains to tell the difference. He correctly found the real burger bits 100% of the time and ignored soy products.
5 comments:
Vitamin D Beak. They normally get it from the sun and that cuts down the fungal infections. Whole foods are also better than "parts" thus he does well with goldfish, worms and snails. Use parts foods only as supplements or "treats". But a little squirt of D in the food is good e.g. cod liver oil.
He is hand trained and will grab cooked chicken from your hands. I discourage my nieces from doing this as this can be dangerous given his size
Dimensions, please.
His Shell is about 12 inches long and he is light about 19 0z. However
he has a sharp beak that can penetrate the armor of a live crayfish. He is a wild animal and is only friendly when he is being fed.
Apparently he has a strong sense of smell and can smell chicken or shrimp
one floor away.
Aligator
When he was younger all his food was live. However, he has a fondness for chicken and will bang his shell until fed. He will eat worms flies and caterpillars but even when well fed will demand chicken. He is less fond of turkey.
Beak,
That's a good-sized turtle!
I've noticed that box turtles had a good sense of smell, too, but not as keen as you mentioned.
Some time ago, I learned to my intense amazement that scientists have found out recently that turtles are much more intelligent than we previously thought, not just for reptiles, but that they are somewhere in the mammal league, intelligencewise. Well, they must be doing something right to be still around after more than 200 million years.
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