Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I found it playing Tag on a busy street in rush hour-I've set it up in my 14 foot square outdoor atrium for now.

Location: Houston
Size: About 8 inches across
Webbed feet, claws, shy. Likes tomatoes.

Here's the same turtles plastron

Same turtle different angle

looks like an old cooter. There's some odd ones in Texas (odd to me because I've never seen them in person and live on the east coast). They do need to eat in water. They might try to grab food on land and take it to water, but it's usually easiest to feed them right there in the water.

I don't know much about turtles, but it looks a little like the one in the link.

article on the mexican wood turtle

It looks like an old RES to me, but could be an Old Texas Cooter. It looks nothing like RhinoClemmys pulcherrima. You said Houstan right? Not Cancun? I know that Texas has a lot of Mexicans, but not of this specie.

I was thinking of a different turtle. Group Consenus is that it was (is) a RES. It's back in nature now.

I'm not sure of the name but it's some type of slider. I live in Tennessee and they're everywhere around here. I've caught like 15 out of Tims Ford Lake. I also saw some basking on a log at the Elk River. I'm positive it's the same kind as in your pic. I've never caught any small ones or hatchlings. All the ones I've caught were over 10 inches. If your're not keeping it in water you might want to. I'll try to find that site that I saw the name on and then I'll get back to you.

yeah its a slider or cooter`
get it in some water right away
give it a way to get out of the water when it wants

then

try this link:
cooter care at WCT

and
sliders

http://www.chelonia.org/trachemysgallery.htm go all the way down. It's the second and third row of pics from the bottom. They call it a Puerto Rican Slider.

Mexican speak spanish, but their not Puerto Ricans. man! you guys must study some Geography, because Texas is far from Puerto Rico. Splurg a little and get yourself a field guide, of the UNITED STATES.

You know, I thought it was a bog turtle w/ a tumor of the thyroid causing it to grow to such a large size.

Just because it's called a Puerto Rican Slider doesn't mean that it lives only in Puerto Rico. Like I said I'm from Tennessee and I've caught plenty of that exact kind of turtle here. For example... Mississippi Map Turtles are found all over the southeast and not just in Mississippi. Maybe you should study up on your turtle species and ranges before we start studying up on the United States.

I keep plastic boxes full of water until the pond is finished(sometime this weekend)

Well it could either be a very old Red-Eared Slider or the introduced Jamaican Slider. It's either one of those, but I the plastron is patternless so I'll go with Jamaican Slider.