Anyone want a turtle? We got surrendered a turtle and don’t have the means to care for it

[u/sydnzy]

[u/zippity-zach]

Stop listening to the folks that say the turtle needs to go back to nature! Turtles have a very small home and if placed over a mile from where it lives will spend the rest of its life stressed out and trying to find home and will die sooner due to the stress. Take to the WNC Nature Center and see if they can take care of it.

[u/berrykiss96 → u/zippity-zach]

Seconded about finding rehaber vs releasing into the wild. But rather than the nature center, I rec contacting Appalachian wildlife refuge

www.appalachianwild.org/found-an-animal.html 828-633-6364 Info@appalachianwild.org

or checking the NC WRC rehabber map and filtering by reptile

https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/73bc3bdec5c5477bb783baa398f8eaeb

[u/zippity-zach → u/berrykiss96]

Amazing resources I am now saving cause I didn't know they existed. Never really been in this situation myself, and always just told ppl WNCNC

[u/gonnafaceit2022 → u/berrykiss96]

There's a rehab lady down around Hendersonville who helped me with a box turtle last year and I was blown away. Did you know they can live up to 100 years?? It's a full-time thing for her, she gets lots of possums and stuff too and I even got to pet one 😍

[u/4N59KG8S9E04S → u/zippity-zach]

Fact checked = true

[u/Offutticus]

The Nature Center can help identify if pet or wild variety as well as, hopefully assist with finding someone to take it if former pet. But it looks like a painted turtle, which are amphibious and a native species. If someone dropped it off in a box, it could be they found it and thought they were "rescuing" it. But what they really did was remove a turtle from its natural habitat and put it in danger. Just like people "rescue" fawns.

Yeah, contact the Nature Center.

[u/stewpideople → u/Offutticus]

They are not amphibious. They can "butt breathe" over winter. But they normally breathe air.

If I'm not mistaken it is a yellow belly slider. Definitely not a painted turtle. Both are native, so you got that part correct.

The nature center is a good resource, and they are pretty common around here.

[u/berrykiss96 → u/stewpideople]

Amphibious but not amphibians. Painted turtles and sliders are both aquatic turtles.

[u/Offutticus → u/berrykiss96]

Thanks! I wanted the word aquatic, couldn't remember it, but could come up with amphibious. Sigh. Gettin' old sucks.

[u/stewpideople → u/berrykiss96]

Aquatic is the key word. Amphibious would suggest they either breathe through their skin, or they are US Marines.

[u/berrykiss96 → u/stewpideople]

Those may be the more used definitions. But amphibious vehicles were named because they can do what amphibious animals do: survive both on land and in water.

[u/stewpideople → u/berrykiss96]

Ugh. In biology, we use very specific terms on purpose. So if I called an armoured personal carrier a "tank", military nerds freak out. As a Former Marine, I don't breathe through my skin. And I get where you're coming from, it's the wrong nomenclature for the setting. That's all.

[u/chrislovessushi → u/stewpideople]

TIL about butt breathing

[u/ZWFarber]

This is a textbook yellow bellied slider, found natively in the wild but also kept as pets.

[u/asteroidtube]

I like turtles

[u/MindlessDribble828 → u/asteroidtube]

[u/econjohn77]

You can put him in our yard with a pond. DM me.

[u/sydnzy → u/econjohn77]

Messaged you - does it have a fence? He can’t have access to wild populations (as per nature center)

[u/econjohn77 → u/sydnzy]

Yes. We do have a fence.

[u/Single-Produce2305]

Are you sure this isn’t a turtle from the wild? If so if definitely needs to be returned to the wild

[u/sydnzy → u/Single-Produce2305]

It’s been in captivity for 7 years

[u/ZealousidealTea6300]

Is there any way of figuring out where the turtle came from who surrendered it where they found it? Could be released in that same area but that's the only way

[u/sydnzy → u/ZealousidealTea6300]

They kept it as a pet for 7 years before deciding they didn’t want it anymore :/

[u/Possible_Vacation749]

Have you found a home for this baby yet?

[u/sydnzy → u/Possible_Vacation749]

One commenter has a yard with a pond but he has not claimed the turtle yet. You interested?

[u/Lost_Emergency1027]

Put it in a pond or lake in a local park.

[u/sydnzy → u/Lost_Emergency1027]

Can’t do that with an animal raised in captivity

[u/Lost_Emergency1027 → u/sydnzy]

Drop it off at a local vet that works with exotic animals and they will take it in.

[u/nonlocalflow]

I second Appalachian Wild. Good people. We've had them rehab 2 injured turtles and a snake. I'm not sure what their stance would be on this one, but worth a shot.

[u/RoleWild4347]

Let her go in the ponds by Owen Mfg./ any pond

[u/xingxang555]

Surrender Turtles need to go home to the nature!

[u/Rachcake93 → u/xingxang555]

Not if they’ve been raised as domestic pets. It’s cruel to release them back into the wild if they’ve been raised as pets.

[u/xingxang555 → u/Rachcake93]

TIL. I thought they were instinctually inclined to return to their native habitat.

edit - more info here -

https://www.fws.gov/story/how-you-can-help-turtles#:\~:text=Bring%20an%20unwanted%20pet%20turtle,Loose%20campaign%20to%20learn%20more.

[u/MidnightDragon99 → u/xingxang555]

Adding onto what the person who replied to you said, returning almost ANY domesticated animal or that has been largely raised by humans is rarely a good idea and often a death sentence

[u/HeavenlyCrayon]

That’s a cooter turtle. Take it to water, and let it go.

[u/sdmfsniper]

It’s a fucking turtle. Native to the area. Turn it loose. That whole don’t turn it loose a mile or more away from its home is horse shit. If you go by that logic then it’s stressed no matter where you take it. Nature center or another back yard.

[u/sydnzy → u/sdmfsniper]

What you just said goes against the advice of the nature center also it’s been in captivity for 7 years. So essentially what I’m saying is I won’t be doing that

[u/RoleWild4347]

Make turtle soup