>>, I have witnessed bullying and they don't care for other species of turtles either. I have seen one incident of canibalism; I was keeping a Yellow Mud and a Reeve's turtle of equal size together, came home one day to find that the mud had killed and partially eaten the Reeve's! They were both well fed.

AHA!! You've confirmed what I've read before.. that they can & will kill other species. I have a western painted male too but he & my mud have always lived separately.
I call my fast swimming painted the speed boat, my clomping around the bottom of the tank mud is the row boat. My painted is quite aggressive, my mud very docile but I've always believed that if the 2 of them were together, the mud could kill the painted, not the other way around. They like their water temps different, they like different foods anyway so I never saw any need to keep them together.


>>I agree with you about people's ignorance of what kind of turtle they have and herps in general. Around here most people call every turtle a "Snapping Turtle" even though they are not native to the area!

OH YES! Everything they see is a snapping turtle even if it doesn't live in water they think it's a snapping turtle lol. We've had a neighborhood kid problem lately too many of them wanting to see our sulcata tortoise (who they thought was a snapping turtle)
Before I started locking the gate 2 kids came to my front door with 2 box turtles. At first I thought they'd found them then realized hey these are MY box turtles put them down now!
One kid asked me if one of them is a snapping turtle because he tried to bite.
Yeah he's an aggressive male box & you kids just scared the heck out of him of course he tried to bite!
I always tell them this:
If it has a mouth it can bite.

Oh & lucky you, it's been very interesting to read your post about growing up near water where mud turtles lived. Here in West TX where the yellow muds are native they aren't seen much because there isn't much water. So far I have yet to meet anyone who's seen my mud that had a clue he's native.
I don't care for taking animals from the wild but I took him in because someone had found him & by the time he got to me, I had no idea where to release him so he stayed.
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PHRatz

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