New Pet?

I couldn't be outdone by all my friends. Since everyone seems to be getting dogs lately (see Mel and Chez) I had to do something to match up, and Lord knows we don't need another dog. Well one of my coworkers got to work this morning and announced he had rescued a turtle from the middle of the road on his way in, and it was hanging out in his car. We didn't waste any time in begging him to bring it in and pretty soon Mr. Turtle had made his home in a large cardboard box in my cubicle. I set up a desk lamp to shine on him (turtles like to bask, like they do on logs or rocks) and watched him for the rest of the day. I tried to do some internet research to figure out exactly what kind of turtle he was but I couldn't pick him out from the few I had narrowed down. I emailed two different reptile experts in the central Texas area whose information I found online. I sent them the following pictures and a brief description of the little guy. It wasn't long before I heard back from both, confirming that he was a red-eared slider.



Here is what Carl Franklin, Biological Curator of the Amphibian and Reptile Diversity Research Center at UT had to say:

"The turtle in your photo is a mature/old male red eared slider. As they get old, the colors fade (including the red ear) and dark patches become more noticeable."

I brought him home with me and let him chill in the bathtub for a few hours since they are almost entirely aquatic and he had been out of the water for who knows how long. There are a few small ponds around my work but at a turtle's pace they are at least two day's journey from where he was rescued. Later on we decided to see if he wanted to crawl around in the grass and meet the dogs. He wanted to do neither. He totally retracted into his shell.



We figured we shouldn't torture him anymore so we brought him in and set up a little habitat with some shallow water and a lamp for some heat. He tried to escape several times (pictured below) but just kept sliding down the sides and we would laugh.


...Until he really escaped and fell onto the kitchen table. So we found a new habitat for him. We are confident he won't escape from this one since the sides are much taller and slanted. I knew this apple bobbing bucket would come in handy again one day!!



We aren't exactly sure what our long term plans are for Mr. Turtle but we want to be fair to him. We have considered setting up a little habitat for him the backyard but haven't worked out all the details of it yet. If we don't feel we are cut out for turtle ownership we will return him to a body of water soon. Stay tuned!!