Sanctuary Update: (Indoor Turtles)

[Marshall]

Update on the indoor turtle population (year-round) including the sanctuary and the quarantine/medical area. Last update was about all residents but mainly the rescue turtles which are mostly outdoor and since they are all available for adoption their numbers change and new ones come in at least on a weekly basis if not daily.

Indoor Population: 7 Sanctuary + 4 Quarantine/Medical
Species: RES, W. Painted, Hybrid (RES +YBS Mix) & Mississippi Map
Terrariums (In Gallons): Two 62 G, Two 75 G & One 150 G

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Overview:
At the present time there are a total of 11 indoor turtles. Seven are permanent indoor residents (pets) and four are in quarantine or medical care. All four of those in QT/Med. Care are likely to become "permanent" once they recover enough to be in general population because they will all still require much more intensive care for the remainder of their lives making them unsuitable for the average person looking for a pet turtle to adopt. Under some circumstances though they can be adopted provided the new owner has the skills, time & finances to care for them.
The sanctuary residents are 5 RES, 1 Map & 1 W. Painted. The 4 QT/Medical turtles are all RES, one of which is partly YBS making him a hybrid technically.
The full in-depth report is available on the MS-ATR website if you want to read more. I am only going to post a brief overview and numbers info here along with some images.

Turtle Images: Up To-date/Recent

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[Becky]

Some great photos there!

I never realised how long their claws get! Do you have to trim them or are they left as they are?

 

[Nepen]

Why the grate/lid/fence (what do you call it) on top of the tank? to prevent them from climbing out?

 

[Marshall]

Why the grate/lid/fence (what do you call it) on top of the tank? to prevent them from climbing out?

Yes they can climb out and fall which could cause injury or even kill them and also provides a place for the lighting and ventilation to get through because UV-B light will not travel through normal glass.

 

[Marshall]

Some great photos there!

I never realised how long their claws get! Do you have to trim them or are they left as they are?

You really can't trim them because they need them to climb onto the basking docks as well as using them to pull off old scutes that fail to just fall off naturally. Also it is a very quick and effective way to identify the males from females. The males are the ones with the freakishly long claws.

 

[HARO]

The males are the ones with the freakishly long claws.

As opposed to the human species, where the opposite is the case!
John

 

[Marshall]

As opposed to the human species, where the opposite is the case!
John

The males are also much smaller in overall size than the females. In many case the females are larger by a factor of 2:1 or double the size of the male of the same age. Once they reach maturity and stop growing the females are about 10 to 12 inches or even up to 14 inches in some cases while the males will usually top out at around 8.5 to 10 inches. I have one 13 year old female RES named Damiana that lives in the outdoor rescue and she is a little over 14 inches. She came from a rescue of a mother with a 3 egg clutch but she was the only survivor, even her mother died very soon after they were brought in so I ended up raising her by hand from a hatchling. She has been in the outdoor area of the rescue since she was about 2 years old and reached her current size by the time she was about 6 years old and most likely she won't get any bigger. Also she has had 8 hatchlings herself from 3 clutches (pregnancies) and I kept one of them named Jeckle who lives in the sanctuary area as a permanent resident/personal-pet. As far as males go though they usually reach their full size by 2 years old also at about 8 to 10 inches but sometimes they will reach full grown in as little as one year.

I included a picture of Damiana & Jeckle below: