When we went on vacation back in September, Jonathan found this cute little snapping turtle in the lake behind my brother's house. (Yeah, I know, I still need to blog about it!) He was so tiny I was sure he was a new hatchling (and maybe was). Of course everyone wanted to keep him, and we figured we'd be giving it a better chance to live a long life anyway because otherwise my brother would have eventually killed it to prevent it from messing with the ducks and geese, so we brought him home. Jonathan named him Noah and we found a tank (for free!) to put him in where he had plenty of room to swim around or bask in the......UV light.
In the early days of his new home, he endured quite a bit from Jacob. Once specific incident was when we thought he had died. I was planning to bury him in the back yard. He sat in the bathroom for several hours while we waited for Myles to get home. By the time he got home, Noah had his eyes open! After another 20 minutes or so, he was moving around like normal again. We discovered that Jacob had poured Windex into his tank and poisoned him, nearly causing him to die! I think he honestly felt bad, although I'm sure he didn't understand it completely. And he no longer has access to the Windex either.....I didn't know he did the first time though! (I guess someone forgot to put it away. It couldn't have been me since I never clean!)
Jonathan did pretty good at taking care of him in those early days, but winter set in and the tank was on the floor. The light broke at some point, and Noah was getting cold and hibernating. Jonathan had shown some very poor behavior and was not very responsible a couple of weeks ago, so Myles took Noah as his own. He took ownership away from Jonathan! It tore him up (which actually did make him be a little more responsible!), but it was actually better for everyone, including Noah!
Now he is elevated and has a new light, and since Myles is taking care of him now, he is keeping the cage clean and checking on him more often. He even helps Noah catch fish! They are buddies, that's for sure. Jonathan is in our room a lot now and is able to see Noah at his eye level. There is more water in the tank than before, so Noah is just a lot more happy. And since he is not hibernating at all, he is constantly swimming around. Myles bought a Plecostymous and a snail and wants to get a couple of catfish too. I bought Noah some food the other day.....a dozen minnows and a dozen small goldfish. It looks like he has eaten maybe half a dozen so far, mostly the goldfish!
All this to say, here is Noah, and I think everyone loves his new home better. :)
In the early days of his new home, he endured quite a bit from Jacob. Once specific incident was when we thought he had died. I was planning to bury him in the back yard. He sat in the bathroom for several hours while we waited for Myles to get home. By the time he got home, Noah had his eyes open! After another 20 minutes or so, he was moving around like normal again. We discovered that Jacob had poured Windex into his tank and poisoned him, nearly causing him to die! I think he honestly felt bad, although I'm sure he didn't understand it completely. And he no longer has access to the Windex either.....I didn't know he did the first time though! (I guess someone forgot to put it away. It couldn't have been me since I never clean!)
Jonathan did pretty good at taking care of him in those early days, but winter set in and the tank was on the floor. The light broke at some point, and Noah was getting cold and hibernating. Jonathan had shown some very poor behavior and was not very responsible a couple of weeks ago, so Myles took Noah as his own. He took ownership away from Jonathan! It tore him up (which actually did make him be a little more responsible!), but it was actually better for everyone, including Noah!
Now he is elevated and has a new light, and since Myles is taking care of him now, he is keeping the cage clean and checking on him more often. He even helps Noah catch fish! They are buddies, that's for sure. Jonathan is in our room a lot now and is able to see Noah at his eye level. There is more water in the tank than before, so Noah is just a lot more happy. And since he is not hibernating at all, he is constantly swimming around. Myles bought a Plecostymous and a snail and wants to get a couple of catfish too. I bought Noah some food the other day.....a dozen minnows and a dozen small goldfish. It looks like he has eaten maybe half a dozen so far, mostly the goldfish!
All this to say, here is Noah, and I think everyone loves his new home better. :)
Is that a regular snapping turtle or an alligator snapping turtle.I couldn't tell by the pics.I used to have both kinds and I found the alligator snapper as a baby also and had him pretty big before he was murdered.
ReplyDeleteThe neighbor kid got into our backyard when we lived in the city and he broke the turtles neck and poured our tiki torch oil into our fish pond and it killed all of our koi and goldfish.Which our fish were almost a foot long.Glad that kid finally moved b/c he was crazy.
So crazy that one time while his parents were at work he called the cops to get his fishing pole unstuck from the tree and when they refused to come he threatened to kill his sister.The police showed up quickly after that.
Glad your turtle is happy now.You should get a pond outside(a small one) and raise ruby reds for him that way you don't have to keep buying fish for him.
Sorry my comments are always long but I seem to always have a story to tell! TTYL!
what a cute little guy!
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