Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i recently rescued 9 painted turtle eggs from a buisy road way.
they are just hatching now, and i was wondering if anyone out there had any recomendations as to care and feeding. i plan to reintroduce them to the wild, and i dont want them to get used to store bought food.
before anyone mentions it, i know keeping them is highly illigal, so is collecting the eggs, but in hind sight their nest site was just bulldozed by a developer who has been running heavy macheinery on the road i collected them from, had i left them to nature they would have shared the fate of all the other nests when the developer bulldozed the road side, and filled their rearing swamp with sand to make a beach.
there is a good chance that my 9 eggs are the only survivors for that lake this year, and i dont want to loose any of them
any help would be appreciated, as i have no experience wih turtles, i am a snake and gecko breeder, and the eggs are on vermiculite in a hovabatore incubator, they are hatching now, incubation temp has been 84 degrees
sorry for the long post

I think it is fantastic that you were willing to take
these eggs and then release the babies. Look on the internet
and you can find care sheets. They are
pretty much kept like adults (i have 2). I think the key would
be setting them free as soon as they begin to eat on their
own. This way they won't get use to store bought food.

Good luck
Linda

hi just an update, we have 8 successfully hatched, and 1 very fat egg so looks like they are all going to be ok,

How exciting! Do you have pictures?

If you need care sheets, www.chelonia.org ia a good site