Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I came down to Texas in '89 from New Jersey. Although I have no turtles now, I have kept Texas indegenious species in the past such as softshells, maps, paints and a beautiful alligator snapper in large aquiriums in my living room.

This spring, I hope to get back into them, but I want to create some major ponds in the back yard similiar to some of the outrageous settings I have seen when folks post images on this forum of their turtle habitates. The local critters I catch and buy will not have a problem with Texas weather.

My question is this: will spotted turtles and eastern paints do O.K. in Texas? Outside. When I was little, back in the 50's, my friends and I would hunt snakes, frogs, newts, and turtles in absolutely prestine ponds and woodlands in Franklin Lakes, Mahwah (Camp Yaw Paw and Glen Grey, up at the pipeline, alone 202 and SkyLine Drive), Glen Rock, Ridgewood and Hawthorne. The older brothers of my friends, who had driver lic. would go down to the Pine Barrens and hunt and visit Mrs. Pittman. They were to cool to take us so I never made it to the Jersey Pine Barrens to hunt. We had to hitchhike to get to our spots. I remember one time in 6th or 7th grade (1960?) we were hiching back to Glen Rock from Camp Yaw Paw, down 202 and 208 with a North Copperhead, many DeKay's, a black Racer, a milk snake and 17 painted turtles. But we never found any timber Rattlers in the Ramapo mountains. On several occassions we found evidence of them from shedded skins, but not the snakes.

I would really like to include spotted and e. paints in my collection, but I need some input from people on this forum regarding the viablity of doing it. All of you know more about turtles than I do, and some of you are pros. Will Northeastern turtles handle this weather? Outside. What are your opinons?

I'll be on this forum almost every night watching for help.

Thanks
Blain

Yep both will do well outdoors in the Big T. While both of the range maps of these turtles do encompass New England, they also extend into the southern states, with Spotteds ranging as far south as north Florida, and eastern painted's Georgia/Alabama. Since both are cold-tolerant species and Texas has relatively mild winters they will probably not hibernate as they would in the northern states, but may experience a decrease in activity correlating with the decrease in the daily photoperiod. Basically, they should be active year-round there. Even in the northern states these species can be seen slowly moving underneath the ice sheets, and will sometimes come out to bask on a sunny, mild winter day.

If being housed in outdoor setups, the best you can do is just construct the enclosures so that the turtles are given a variety of options such as varying depths, areas of shade, areas of direct sun, etc.

Please purchase captive bred specimens of both species as they are readily available on the Kingsnake.com classifieds, do not impact wild-populations (Spotted's are protected throughout most of their range), and will be much more acclimated to your different geographic region.

Hope this answered your Q

-JG

My E. and Midland Painteds have lived outside in huge rubbermaid bins for 2.5 years now with no problems. NOt sure about spotteds, however.

During the winter, I bring them inside as it can get quite chilly, and I worry they might be stuck in the "death" zone where they're too cold to want to eat and too hot to want to hibernate.

Johnny

Thank-you both for the guidance regarding viablity of housing spotted turtle and e. paints outside in Texas. I will buy captive hatched and bred because that is all that is availble to me.

I'm really excited about putting together a turtle pond this spring. If I do finish the project, I'll post the pictures.

Thanks again
Blain