If you love turtles and you want to do something good and useful, than you should really check this opportunity. Volunteers are needed to help conserve and protect the Olive Ridley Turtles in the beautiful Drake Bay and Ganado playa at the South-eastern Costa Rican coast.
Sound awesome right?! All you need to do is to take long walk on the beach during the night and help preserve the turtles nests. Check out all the details in this article.
Here are some background information:
“The rapid disappearance of sea turtles on the beaches is the reason why this project was initiated in 2006. The low nesting numbers of the Olive Ridley Turtle (Lepidochelys olivácea) raised the alarm. Pacific Sea turtle populations are critically endangered throughout the world, and this project is working hard to conserve and protect this species in this part of Costa Rica.”
This guy is defiantly not a pet! Alligator Snapping Turtles has an exceptionally powerful bite, the 2nd strongest jaw bite of all the animals in the entire world… So if you happen to meet this turtle be sure to keep your finger away from his jaws.
The Alligator Snapping turtles listed as a threatened species. You can find them in the lakes and rivers of the southeastern USA. They are among the largest fresh water turtles in the world and some males can weigh more than 200 pounds.
They have a really cool hunting technique. They lay down on the bottom of the river or the lake with their mouth open exposing their warm-like tongue and when curious fish or frog come to investigate – SNAPP! The turtle strong jaw close on his prey…
Check out this YouTube video I found, it is form the discovery TV show “dirty jobs”
I guess this is hatching time for the sea turtles of Florida, and unfortunately some of those baby sea turtles are run over by cars. This is happening because of the confusing lights that coming from the street and making the turtles crawls in the wrong direction – the street instead of the ocean.
Some changes already been made and the street light has been adjusted, but the turtles are still confuse because of the street business’s lights such as the light of the local pizza restaurant.
Baby sea Turtle from Florida. Do you feel like eating pizza right now?
Local activists are trying to make a difference. They open a Facebook page with this radical name: “Help Stop the Massacre of Baby Sea Turtles in Fort Lauderdale” and together with the local business they are trying to make the change and help those baby sea turtles to reach the ocean.
You want to read more? check out this local news article.
And If you want to show your support visit this Facebook page.
In my last post I already share with you some tips about the water turtles nutritions, so by now you should already know what do turtles eat - water plants, small fishes, chopped vegetables, cricket, etc .
Today I’m going to tell you guys 4 things that you should avoid while feeding your turtles:
Avoid feeding your water turtles french fries or any other deep fried food like donuts, onion rings, etc. Lets face it even though it taste really good deep fried food is not good for most animals (including humans).
No sugary foods: No lollipops, no cotton candy, no chocolate bars or any other type of candy or gums. this type of sticky food pose a real choking hazard.
Do not give your water turtles any milk and other dairy products. Reptiles can not digest milk because they don’t have the special enzymes that requiring for breaking down the lactose.
Avoid sharing food with your water turtles (or any other reptiles), most reptiles may carry salmonella bacteria. This bacteria doesn’t cause illness for the water turtles but may cause some serious illness for us. So what ever you do never ever share food with your water turtles. You should also avoid kissing them (even tough they are really cute , don’t allow your turtles to wander around the kitchen area and after holding your turtles wash your hands with soap and water.
Carefully and conscientiously you should avoid these 4 errors, and both you and your turtles should be happy and more importent healthy.
if you are still confused and wondering what do turtles eat? check out my previous blog post.
Take good care of your pets and make sure you enjoy it I hope you found this post useful and if you have your own tips or comment please share them with us.
Before telling you guys all you need to know about what do turtles eat, I want to warn you – Last time I wrote how easy fun and harmless turtles are, but as it turn out when it come to their diets, water turtles eat some crazy ugh stuff. So be warn this blog post is not for the cricket lovers…
Okay I got my water turtles, I got my aquarium and all the needed equipments and now I need to figure out what do turtles eat (rewind: Let me correct myself, I should have been more responsible and checked it out before actually getting the turtles).
So I done my research, I asked here and there and check out with some real turtles experts and this is what I came up with:
if you want your new friends to stay happy and healthy their nutrition should be as much similar as possible to the nutruition they would have got if they where free in the wild.
Fresh water turtles habitat in the wild are usually small rivers or ponds and they will eat what ever they can find in the water and fit into their mouth. for example: water plants , small fish, insect and even (and this is where it become really gross…) leeches!
That mean I can and should feed my water turtles:
Small fish
Chopped vegetables
Water plants
And insects, that turn out to be a very important ingredients in their diet.
Don’t worry you don’t have to start hunting insects on the backyard you can just buy small crickets in almost every pet store.
I know, I know who knew that taking Water turtles as a pet will become such a Fear Factor experience… But everything for my new best friends – right!?
And I guess my husband can always help with all the insect things…
Any way I found this video that give, what looks like a great explanation on what do turtles eat.
I hope you find this information useful and if you have your own tips and smart advise please share it with us.
● Red eared slider turtles natural habitat is in the southern USA, but now you can find them almost everywhere because people released their unwanted turtles pets into the wild (releasing pet into the wild is wrong and can cause spread of diseases and harm the native plants and the habitat, not to mention that some domesticated pet simply lost their ability to feed themselves and they will starve).
● Turtles are a reptiles and just like any other reptiles they are cold-blooded and they need to relay on external heat source, like the sun or a special UVB lighting, to keep them warm.
● Trachemys scripta elegans is their officialscientific name.
● Red eared turtles feeds on plants, small animals and insects. They are omnivores.
● The common red eared sliders is green color with yellow stripes.
● They got their name from the red mark around their ears and their ability to slide.
● As they getting older some of the male become darker and their stripes become fade and some of them may even lose their identifying marked their red patch.
● Females are usually larger than the males
● The male have longer front claws and his tail is also longer and thicker than the female.
● Their mating season is between March and june and the egg laying is between May to July.
● It’s taken an egg 60 to 90 days to hatch. eggs that where laid at the end of the season may spend the winter in the nest and hatch only by spring.
● Each turtles is hatching with the help of his egg-tooth, that will fall out an hour after and never grow back.
● When hatching from the egg the average red ear slider will be 1 inch and he can grow up to 12 inches
● If sun is not available and the temperature drops they will go into hibernation.
● FDA regulation band the sale of turtles eggs and turtles with carapace length of less than 4 inch.
● If you chose to have red ear slider turtles as your pet, you will need to provide him aquarium with clean water where they can swim and a basking area that will offer sun light or other UVB lamp.
● Red eared slider turtles can live more than 70 years.
I’m hoping you find this info useful! and for even more info please check out this video:
Share with us your tips and knowledge about the Red Eared Slider Turtles.
That’s it I’ve made up my mind! I’m going to blog about my dear friends the water turtles.
I love water turtles! big, small, in the water, on the land, I just like this creature a LOT.
I’m not sure what it is about them that just catch my heart and won’t let go. maybe it’s their prehistoric looks. when I’m looking at them it easy for me to imagine they where here since forever! Walking or swimming next to the dinosaurs.
Maybe it’s the fact that they are harmless just trying to survive in this crazy world not bothering no one, just doing what they’re meant to do (even if it’s mean swimming for thousands of miles just to go back to the beach where they where born and lay their eggs – Go baby turtle! Go!).
I’m pretty sure they are smart. They must be smart, turtles can lives for more than 100 years (I think..!?) they probably learn a thing or two in all those years, right?
And also if you ever looked into a turtle eyes you could see he is smart.
But if I’m been honest when I’m looking into a turtle eyes I see some unexplained sadness… did you notice it too?
maybe it because they always have a tearing eyes… I’m really not sure.
