Posted by:
PHRatz
at Fri Jun 17 10:18:04 2005 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by PHRatz ]
Backyard box turtles are one of my major pet peeves in this town/region where I live. We are in West TX where ornates are still abundant & this didn't really start to peeve me until I started teaching this summer class for 1st-6th graders in 1999.
That's when I realized how common it is for people here to take any box or other turtle that they find, stick it in their backyard, & feed it cat food.
I don't believe there are any true breeders here, there are just a lot of clueless people collecting them for no reason other than they think they're cool looking.
Most people we run into who have them don't even know what kind of turtles they are, many people call them regular turtles or snapping turtles. Man if you don't have a clue then you need to leave them be!
It's so pervasive that nearly any vet you meet in my town will treat box turtles, even some of the equine vets do it because there are so many kept in backyards.
If Charity was hybridized it probably would've been an accident because someone had a bunch of turtles in the backyard & was only keeping them because they're "cool." She had nail polish on her, too many people here mark them because they can't tell them apart, even though none of them look exactly alike.
I haven't lived here all my life but through the class I teach I've had to spend every year spelling out why you don't feed cat food & iceberg lettuce to box turtles. The parents tend to understand the part about feeding them but when I spell out why you leave them alone & stop collecting them that part of my speil always falls on deaf ears.
I meet the parents on the last day of each session. We let the kids do show & tell & there are always more box turtles than anything else brought in for show & tell.
Yesterday was parents day because it was the end of session 1.
A kid brought in two turtles & the first one out of the box was a large male yellow mud. I said that, the mother said "Really? We thought it was a desert tortoise!"
OY!!!
I feel like I'm fighting a losing battle here. 
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PHRatz
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RE: About backyard box turtles & Charity - PHRatz, Fri Jun 17 10:18:04 2005