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This guy has been taking a beating!
- Thread starter Big Dog
- Start date
Junkman
Extra Super Moderator
Looks like he was hit by a lawn mower at one time. It is a yellow footed tortoise, and they are becoming quite rare to be seen today. Don't know if they are listed on the endangered species list, but I do know that some of the North American tortoises have been. The one that I used to see commonly, the yellow spotted tortoise, I haven't seen in about 40 years. As a kid, we used to find them in the woods all the time, but with housing developments, their habitat has been largely destroyed.
Snowcat Operations
Active member
Put him in a palstic container and feed him some gold fish. When he is done take him out and let him hang out by the pond. Is he weak or is that just an old would. Looks like its healing up. Cant really tell in the photos.
Snowcat Operations
Active member
And if you have kids make sure you wash your hands and bucket afterwords. They can carry Samenella. I dont let or young ones touch our turtle/tortaoise whatever they are.
Junkman
Extra Super Moderator
They are not fish eaters, but are herbivore's..... they have a diet of plants. If you want to feed him/her, then I suggest you start with things like strawberries, and melons. They will also eat some leafy vegetables, but not iceberg lettuce.
Washing your hands after handling any animal is good advise, but the turtles and tortoises don't carry salmonella unless they were fed a diet of raw meat. This only happened when people kept the small green turtles that they bought in Woolworth's or pet shops prior to 1973. In 1973, the interstate transportation of the green turtle was banned by the Federal Government, and the only place that I know of where you can purchase them today is in the very Southern states, where it is warm all year long. It is still illegal to transport them across state lines.
I would also like to point out that they are not like water turtles, and they should never be thrown into a pond. There swimming capabilities are limited, so they will drown unless they can get out of the water quickly. They usually go to the edge of the ponds and drink, rather than going in fully. The only time that they go into water fully is if it is to cross a shallow stream, and even then, it rarely happens.
I'm with Junk on both of these!
Salmonella is largely present anywhere that an animal lives in it's own feces. The incidents where humans typically are exposed to Salmonella are usually where their pets are turtles (they poop in their water) or reptiles that poop in their cages and the cages aren't kept clean. I've read of a case where a lady got Salmonella from showering in her tub - she had trained her pet lizard to defecate in the tub and obviously didn't rinse the tub out very well before she had a shower.
I'd just let the little guy roam free and enjoy him.
My lab used to bring Gopher Tortoises to me in Florida. He thought they looked like footballs and didn't seem to care that they were endangered.
I got pretty good at finding Gopher Tortoise burrows - not sure if they were the right ones but I tried.
Turtles (i.e. Red eared Sliders) are great pets. They appear to have personalities and are responsive to feeding which is nice. They do take some work to keep clean though.