Anyone know a lot about turtles/tortoises?

[purpleninja]

Hey, guys! I'm up at the family camp in Mississippi for the Fourth of July, and earlier today I rescued a tortoise from the middle of the road. I'm assuming for now that it's a boy, and I've named him Franklin. He has a pretty high, domed shell that's brown/khaki with a hexagonal-ish shape pattern and some black around the edges of the shapes. He has orange stripe-like markings on his head and yellow dots on his arms. He doesn't have a notch in his shell near his tail, and his tail isn't large or small enough to determine sex that way. His irises are orange, and his underbelly appears pretty flat, though his entire shell appears to have been damaged severely some time ago, probably by a car

Can anyone determine the breed and sex of him by that description? I'm working on uploading photos.

Thank you!!!

-Koda

[Timber and Coal]

Oh I used to have a couple of Terrapins. But I'm far from an expert. Google shows the following though, maybe it'll help?

Turtles: As a general rule:

Males have a longer thicker tail than females of the same species (when they are full grown).

The location of the cloaca is also different between male and female turtles. ...

Females tend to have very short nails; males have long nails on their front feet.

I think the markings are its head can be used to identify its species. Was the case with the Terrapins anyway.

[SneezyHolmes]

I'm not sure if removing a wild animal, even if it is just a turtle, from it's natural environment is healthy for said animal. In some states it's illegal to take wildlife, or at least in Missouri it is. I am glad you removed it from the dangerous highway but to be quite frank, the stress of being relocated to domestic life could make the turtle very sick or even kill it.

EDIT: https://www.mdwfp.com/fishing-boating/freshwater-commercial/turtle-information.aspx

Edited July 4, 2015 by SneezyHolmes

[purpleninja]

That is something I thought about earlier, whether or not it's ethical to keep him. After a closer inspection and a talk with someone who's had tortoises for years, his shell is severely damaged, so I'd venture to say he's safer in a naturalistic habitat than he was in the wild. We're watching him closely, though, and I'm okay with releasing him if that's what's best, but so far it doesn't seem to be :/

I googled signs of distress in tortoises, and so far he's pretty chill. He'll just chill in his water bowl, eat some lettuce, and poop sometimes, which seems about normal. At this point it appears that he has more of a chance of dying outside than he does in his little terrarium with plenty of food and water and the perfect temperature and, most importantly, no cars.

Still working on getting some pictures up, but I didn't want to take too many and freak him out. So far we've just been letting him be a turtle and I don't want to stress him out too quickly. However, he didn't even try to snap at me once, and never once went in his shell, so he must be comfortable?? We've had a turtle before, too, and Franklin seems quite domesticated.

Idk, I guess I just don't want people thinking that I go in the woods and just capture a bunch of perfectly happy animals, because I don't. Franklin has been hit by cars a few times by the looks of it and didn't appear to be to happy where he was. At any rate, I thought there has to be at least one vet on this forum? I really would like to make him as happy as possible, and if releasing him in a safer place is the way to do it, then I guess that's what we'll have to do

[bloom]

However, he didn't even try to snap at me once, and never once went in his shell, so he must be comfortable??

This is actually kind of a really bad sign to me. It's very possible he's too sick or injured to defend himself. (Not that you're a threat, but he's a tortoise, he has no way to know that.) Given that he isn't trying to defend himself at all I would not be at all surprised if he dies on you very soon, so be prepared for that possibility.

If his shell is injured he could be at risk for infection or something and that's really out of most peoples' depth. Call your local Animal Control or something to see what you should do, there has to be something in the area. If he's hurt, it's really, really, really important that he is looked at by somebody who knows what they're doing. Unfortunately, you can't rely on people on the internet for something like this. The only course of action that's reasonable right now is taking him to somebody who is familiar with tortoises and letting them take care of him.

[purpleninja]

He's walking fine and very active, but he is with our friend who's had tortoises for YEARS, and she said the damage to his shell looked old. Unfortunately, we're in the middle of absolutely nowhere, so there's not really much professional help we could get him, but we're gonna take him to an exotic vet when we go home tomorrow and make sure he's alright. I was surprised that he survived the ride home, but he appears to be a tough little sucker so far

[Garnet]

The best option would have been to simply move him off the road in the direction he was headed, and onto the bank. They know where they're going, even if they have to cross roads to get there. I'm generally against the removal of any wildlife from the wild, even if it seems like it will be "happier" in captivity. That's a bit subjective.

I work at a vet clinic, and we see sick turtles and tortoises all the time due to poor husbandry. So if you do intend to keep him, make sure you know the species and do your research very, very thoroughly!

[purpleninja]

My mom agreed to let me take him to a vet tomorrow to find out the breed and sex and check him out and we'll see if we can take good care of him. If not, we'll release him

[Icarus Rex]

Well, in the meantime, I wouldn't handle it at all. Wild turtles aren't like domestic pets that will be "comforted" by being handled and/or contained. If it isn't trying to hide or defend itself, there is probably something wrong. That, and reptiles and amphibians are notorious for carrying salmonella.

Call a wildlife rehab in the area or, barring that, a vet. Aside from releasing it back from whence it came, that's the best thing you can do.

I'm not an expert, just a Lorax.

Edited July 4, 2015 by Icarus Rex

[purpleninja]

Yeah, I don't manhandle him unless I kinda have to, and I wash my hands after touching him; I only had to have salmonella once in my life to learn to take my precautions. He's been turtling pretty nicely so far and he's going to see a get tomorrow

[SneezyHolmes]

That is something I thought about earlier, whether or not it's ethical to keep him. After a closer inspection and a talk with someone who's had tortoises for years, his shell is severely damaged, so I'd venture to say he's safer in a naturalistic habitat than he was in the wild. We're watching him closely, though, and I'm okay with releasing him if that's what's best, but so far it doesn't seem to be :/

I googled signs of distress in tortoises, and so far he's pretty chill. He'll just chill in his water bowl, eat some lettuce, and poop sometimes, which seems about normal. At this point it appears that he has more of a chance of dying outside than he does in his little terrarium with plenty of food and water and the perfect temperature and, most importantly, no cars.

Still working on getting some pictures up, but I didn't want to take too many and freak him out. So far we've just been letting him be a turtle and I don't want to stress him out too quickly. However, he didn't even try to snap at me once, and never once went in his shell, so he must be comfortable?? We've had a turtle before, too, and Franklin seems quite domesticated.

Idk, I guess I just don't want people thinking that I go in the woods and just capture a bunch of perfectly happy animals, because I don't. Franklin has been hit by cars a few times by the looks of it and didn't appear to be to happy where he was. At any rate, I thought there has to be at least one vet on this forum? I really would like to make him as happy as possible, and if releasing him in a safer place is the way to do it, then I guess that's what we'll have to do

Sorry let me rephrase myself: Just because it might be 'safer' for the turtle is not an 'okay' to remove him from the wild. As Garnet said, they know where they are going and get along just fine without human aid. I also agree with Junia in the fact that there might be something wrong with it illness wise and might pass despite 'cozy' attention and care. It is incredibly odd for a wild turtle to not hiss, pull away, snap, or retreat into their shells. And to be fair to the turtle, there are things you simply cannot provide for him outside of food, water, etc. It would be very rude to take a perfectly happy animal from the great, wide outdoors and shove it into an enclosure with walls. And if he is carrying a human transmittable disease, it'd be best to release him back into the freedom of the wild. The vet is a good idea just be prepared for a more or less 'release him' or 'we'll take care of him' approach which, if he is indeed ill or suffering some sort of physical damage, might include humane ethunization.

[purpleninja]

Well, I have an update on Franklin for everyone concerned:

We believe that he is a male three-toed box turtle, though he MIGHT be a gulf coast box turtle. He LOVES his little water dish, so we gave him another larger one to lay in. Our turtle friend gave him some lettuce and cucumber, but he showed no interest, so we're getting him some worms. His shell and skin looks MUCH better; turns out he was severely dehydrated. He fell on his back earlier, and hissed at me when I (gently) turned him over, so I took that as a good sign. His vet appointment is for later on this week, and I'm glad, because our turtle friend says he probably wouldn't have made it much longer; he was so dehydrated that he hasn't left his water dish since, save for the two times that I cleaned it and changed his water. Even the cracks in his she'll look so much better; maybe he was just so dry his shell cracked?? We don't know, but the next challenge is to find him some food that he's used to. Poor thing, he really wasn't in the right spot, as there wasn't water for miles, and we can't even find a work out here

If we can at least get him fed and hydrated, then we might release him after the vet gives us the ok. Until then, we can just about guarantee that he's better here than he was in the middle of bumfuck nowhere

[purpleninja]

Another update: he eats!!! I'm starting to think that this "wild" turtle isn't as wild as if first thought: he'll only eat white bread out of my hand, isn't even slightly scared of humans or my crazy dogs, and isn't opposed to being picked up. If he is wild, he's the tamest wild thing I've ever seen. He's doing much better, though, even though he didn't like the earthworms we bought him so far, however, he seems content to have them as friends; he watches them crawl around and lets them swim in his water tub. He hasn't died yet, and doesn't look like he intends to, but he's still going to the vet (if nothing else, mom says that they can test them for salmonella, so that's a good thing to know)