Help Appreciated

[AstonN24vantage]

The adults will naturally require feeding less frequently than the hatchlings anyway. What are you feeding them on?

These were big adult RES (12"), when it got really cold we used to just put them in plastic boxes with just enough water to cover them in a cool part of the house and they'd basically just sit there for four months or so. You can offer them food every week, they might eat it, they might not.

However, if yours are in a large tank I'd suggest leaving them be and keeping an eye on them, again they are very hardy animals, particularly the maps, strangely, even though their natural range is more southern.

The idea of an 'excersise' pen is a strange one, to be honest I woundn't recomend it. Maps are river system turtles that almost never leave the water (other than to bask) out of choice. They are massively strong swimmers and ideally should live in as large a body of water as you can provide, if possible with an artificial current for them to swim against (though the yellows wouldn't apreciate that so much if they live together). This should provide all the excersise that they need.

Watercress is 99p a bag in my local sainsburys, I normally stretch to a bag or two a month - it goes down very well. Also on eBay you can get a box of elodea (normally sold as 100 plants etc.) for about £4, which is particularly good too.

Which species are you keeping?

Hope that helps,
Alex.

Thanks for your advice Alex. I currently have 3 adult maps, 3 baby maps 3in,1 false map, 1 yellow belly adult and 2 yellow belly hatchlings size of 10p coin.They get a varied diet of special turtle pellets, lettuce, ham, dried fish, dried shrimp plus the odd slug or dead guppy/molly/platy from tropical fishtanks.My maps are fine on dey land and enjoy their basking/exercise pen. False map prefers dry land to water and spends most of his time when in tank sitting on a large rock.They really enjoyed swimming when I moved them all into big new tank a few days go.My turtles get on well and are always climbing onto each other and interacting(lots of claw wagging from the boys!)Only started keeping turtles in Feb.Got thrown into it at the deep end when I adopted my first 3 adult maps on impulse as they were about to be dumped into a canal.Since then I've acquired lots of other unwanted turtles. Even the 4 week old hatchlings had 2 previous owners in their short life before I got them.Sad to see so many unwanted turtled being given away for free to anyone who will take them or worse still dumped in rivers and parks.Abandoned turtles are a big problem. You may know that the 2 London rescue centres have caught and rescued over 40 from ponds rivers and parks this summer alone.

Belive me, over the years we have rehomed a lot! Unfortunately the rules regarding the import and sale are so outdated its untrue (and often nonsensical! - Banning T.s. elegans, but allowing T. s. scripta and T.s. troostii? they're bassically the same animal!)

I think you may be a little confused about your maps - there is no difinitive 'map' turtle, the genus Graptemys contains 13 species/subspecies of map turtle. The so-called false map is named because it was frequently confused with the (now misleadingly rare) common map.

There are three species commonly imported to the UK - The False map (Graptemys psuedogeographica psuedogeographica), The Mississippi map (Graptemys psuedogeographica kohnii) and the Ouachita map (Graptemys ouachitensis) - All of which look remarkably similar. The key to telling them apart is in the head markings and eye colouration. I'll happily double check if you want me to, just post up some head shots

And you'd be amazed at the things i've seen for sale as 'yellow belly' - anything from common musks to Suwanee cooters!


Also - map turtles spend a lot of their time basking, but they still like to be near the water - its a security thing.

Always good to see another enthusiast around - if there were more like us the rescue centres wouldn't have such a problem!

i have no idea what your talking about. the only turtles i can name are box turtles and res. sorry.

 

[fishnovice]

Belive me, over the years we have rehomed a lot! Unfortunately the rules regarding the import and sale are so outdated its untrue (and often nonsensical! - Banning T.s. elegans, but allowing T. s. scripta and T.s. troostii? they're bassically the same animal!)

I think you may be a little confused about your maps - there is no difinitive 'map' turtle, the genus Graptemys contains 13 species/subspecies of map turtle. The so-called false map is named because it was frequently confused with the (now misleadingly rare) common map.

There are three species commonly imported to the UK - The False map (Graptemys psuedogeographica psuedogeographica), The Mississippi map (Graptemys psuedogeographica kohnii) and the Ouachita map (Graptemys ouachitensis) - All of which look remarkably similar. The key to telling them apart is in the head markings and eye colouration. I'll happily double check if you want me to, just post up some head shots

And you'd be amazed at the things i've seen for sale as 'yellow belly' - anything from common musks to Suwanee cooters!


Also - map turtles spend a lot of their time basking, but they still like to be near the water - its a security thing.

Always good to see another enthusiast around - if there were more like us the rescue centres wouldn't have such a problem!

Perhaps you can help me with map ID. The 3 x year old youngsters are definitely Mississippi, Prince is a false map but the girls are unusual as they have orange yellow tiger like horizontal bands on their shells.Haven't seen any photos like them anywhere Someone suggested they were a map colour morph but they have identical shells and yellow face markings different from the map/false map males so unlikely to be a mutation unless they are sisters. They have 18cm shells so not yet adults unless stunted from malntrition as they were my first rescue, about to be dumped in Surrey Canal.

As far as misnaming goes, I recently saw Mississippi maps advetised for sale as TORTOISES! Emailed the seller to tell them these guys are turtles and can only eat in water as I was afraid they might starve to death if kept on dry land all the time and fed on land.

 

[Asp]

i have no idea what your talking about. the only turtles i can name are box turtles and res. sorry.

Ah if only it were that simple! Frankly even US Box turtles (genus Terrapene) have about eight subspecies in the mainland US alone! If you want me to double check that you definately do have RES feel free to post a picture and I'll happily confirm for you

The care is likely to be the same for whatever though, so in the long run it makes relatively little difference.

Perhaps you can help me with map ID. The 3 x year old youngsters are definitely Mississippi, Prince is a false map but the girls are unusual as they have orange yellow tiger like horizontal bands on their shells.Haven't seen any photos like them anywhere Someone suggested they were a map colour morph but they have identical shells and yellow face markings different from the map/false map males so unlikely to be a mutation unless they are sisters. They have 18cm shells so not yet adults unless stunted from malntrition as they were my first rescue, about to be dumped in Surrey Canal.

As far as misnaming goes, I recently saw Mississippi maps advetised for sale as TORTOISES! Emailed the seller to tell them these guys are turtles and can only eat in water as I was afraid they might starve to death if kept on dry land all the time and fed on land.

Possibly the seller was australian? In Australia all semi aquatics are called tortoises (just when you thought it wasn't hard enough already!).

But yeah, either stick some photos up or send me a PM and we can continue by e-mail if its easier for you, hope I can help a bit, they sound very interesting!

 

[AstonN24vantage]

im sure that they're res.

 

[Asp]

Fair enough. Great little guys, wish I still had mine!

 

[AstonN24vantage]

they're lovely and quite funny to be honest. they always fight, but as a joke. im going to get them a filter tomorrow.

 

[AstonN24vantage]

alright, so the turtles have some sort of reptofilter (a loud one that sounds like somebody is urinating in my tank)