Squeee! and Aaarg!
We have a baby one of these at my work!!! :
I love these little guys! This is actually the second one we've had this year. Unfortunately, both times they came into our care due to the stupidity of people.
Turtle 1 was an adult, found FROZEN in a case of frozen fish. So, the fish-store people defrosted it, didn't know what to do, and RE-FROZE IT!!! How cruel/brainless can you be?! Luckily, she seemed fine when I saw her, and she was sent to a turtle reservation for care/release.
Turtle 2 (the current baby, named "Vick" in (dis)honor of another human example of cruel stupidity) was taken from the wild as a hatching, which is illegal for this species, and kept for a year. Of course, they didn't feed him well, so he likely has metabolic bone disease and hypovitaminosis-A. Meaning: his little baby turtle bones are squishy, and he has swollen eyes :(
Hopefully we can fix him up, but it will likely take a while for his bones to harden.
I love these little guys! This is actually the second one we've had this year. Unfortunately, both times they came into our care due to the stupidity of people.
Turtle 1 was an adult, found FROZEN in a case of frozen fish. So, the fish-store people defrosted it, didn't know what to do, and RE-FROZE IT!!! How cruel/brainless can you be?! Luckily, she seemed fine when I saw her, and she was sent to a turtle reservation for care/release.
Turtle 2 (the current baby, named "Vick" in (dis)honor of another human example of cruel stupidity) was taken from the wild as a hatching, which is illegal for this species, and kept for a year. Of course, they didn't feed him well, so he likely has metabolic bone disease and hypovitaminosis-A. Meaning: his little baby turtle bones are squishy, and he has swollen eyes :(
Hopefully we can fix him up, but it will likely take a while for his bones to harden.