Sunday, April 27, 2008

Turtle on Sunday

A turtle only moves ahead
by sticking it's head out

Mom's bean (she does not live here) got this turtle away from her two dogs. He has damage on the back of his shell. Not deep, but it did have some blood. We are not going to let it go yet. We can't return him to where the dogs are, as they will find him again.
Everything we've read states that a relocated turtle faces certain death, therefore should be put back as close to the original place where found.
We could keep him, but we'd rather him be free to be a turtle. In the meantime, any suggestions about food? We've put fruit, Mom even went and got some worms but he has not eaten anything that we know of.

14 comments:

  1. Awww, poor guy! I have no idea, we are turtle idiots!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Gosh, I don't know anything about turtles, but I hope he'll be all right!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I used to have a turtle as a kid and we used to feed it leafy greens, lettuce, tops of celery, things like that. Don't know if they all eat that but you might try that.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Do you think he is a turtle or a tortoise? I am not sure, but if he is a tortoise, I found this:

    "Favorite foods are pulses such as peas and beans; greens such as lettuce, cabbage and grass; and roots such as carrot or turnip. They also enjoy fruits such as banana, plum and strawberry; and flowers like rose and poppy. Each individual has preferences, but most tortoises will enjoy eating from the procession of different plants and flowers in the garden. Most will need a dietary supplement in the form of cereal, which can be provided by brown bread soaked in milk, or bran breakfast cereal."

    Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  5. the only turtle we know of is a stuffed one in Meowmie's Mum's house!

    but they do like fruits and greens and stuff like that. poor little guy, i hope he pulls through - come on little turtle, you can do it my friend xxx

    ReplyDelete
  6. I think from what they said above that those foods are good. I am also wondering with Daisy if he is a turtle or a tortoise?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Daisy, thank you for the suggestions!
    We are pretty sure he is Box Turtle because of his coloring.
    He has more orange on his skin than we are used to seeing.

    He won't eat, so far, but we're hoping that he will try some of the things that Daisy mentioned. We are going to try the brown bread in milk.

    We'll keep working with him! We were hoping to release him, but that looks doubtful now

    ReplyDelete
  8. My bean used to have turtles as a boy, but that was a squillion years ago. He remembers feeding them lettuce. I hope this turtle thrives.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Aw, poor Mr. Turtle. His dog bite will have to be disinfected. He probably won't feel like eating until he gets some nice sunshine.
    Your buddy, Jimmy Joe

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hi Jimmy Joe! We put peroxide on his wounds. None of them went through his shell.
    We will call the v-e-t tomorrow to see what else to do. We will take him out for some nice morning sun tomorrow. Thank you for your help!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Mom's really ignorant about turtles...we found one at da cottage but stoopid Alfred da woofie just snorfled at it and walked away.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I don't know much about turtles either but hope that he will be OK. I, also, thought that they like lettuce.

    ReplyDelete
  13. He looks like an box turtle to me, too, and the coloring is similar to other Eastern box turtles I have seen. This fellow has some good advice for caring for this variety, including the need to keep them cool, give them lots of room to run and dig, and some dietary suggestions. I can vouch for the tomatoes - I met my previous box turtles while they were stealing tomatoes from my garden!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Sounds like you've gotten quite a few suggestions already, but I can vouch for the worms and lettuce. We had a box turtle --Myrtle the Turtle-- in our yard when I was a kid, and she loved those. Good luck!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for visiting The Bunch!