I would like to get a small turtle and read that southern painted turtles stay around 5". My local pet store has painted turtles, but they don't know what kind. Are southern's the only ones with the stripe down their shell? If not, are there any other ways to tell the subspecies apart?
Thanks!
Jen
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Telling painted's apart
Jenp
Dec 03, 2008 02:51 PM
Replies (1)
Katrina
Dec 26, 2008 04:54 PM
http://www.chelonia.org/Articles/diffpaintedturtles.htm
The eastern painted will occasionally have a thin red dorsal stripe (at least some wild easterns in MD do). Easterns are the only turtle in the world, though, that have the scutes lining up to form three horizontal lines on the carapace. You can see that here: http://www.chelonia.org/chrysemys_gallery.htm
Are these hatchlings or larger turtles that you're looking at? Male easterns usually max out between 4-5", and you can usually tell an eastern is maly by about 3 - 3.5" in shell length.
It's not common to find male eastern, midland, or southern painteds in rescue, but they do occasionally show up, if you want to check www.petfinder.com
Katrina
