Anybody own aquatic turtles?

[IamDeMan 5,000+ posts]

 

[KINGDELL91 10+ year member]

ok here's a pic of it when i first got it... much bigger now

yep mines were about that size if you give him a lot of room to grow and when he get a lil bigger give him feeder fish it will get big as hell!!! make sure u get a filter for the tank the fish thing gets nasty, but fun to watch!!!

 

[Canaan 10+ year member]

Funny this topic should come up...

My family owns a turtle farm in Jonesville, La.

We raise ~450,000-500,000 turtles a year

Usually get a 2-headed turtle every other year or so:

Also, we do get alot of 'special' turtles (flukes):

Been a turtle farmer for ~15yrs now. Spent my childhood on a shovel on the ponds.

There is the main pond at feeding time:

Every little dot is a turtle's head. (full grown red-ears mostly)

Also, to everyone that has a turtle:

Where did you buy/get your turtle?

How much did you pay?

You see, it is illegal to sell red-ears smaller than 4" in the US due to some BS about salmonella. We treat our eggs and raise 98%+ salmonella free crops. But the FDA still holds the turtle farming industry to an unreachable standard and it is driving us all out of business. We are currently trying to get the ban on baby turtles lifted in the US.

Anyone that has a turtle knows they make great pets, if you know how to tend to them.

A nice big tank w/ a good filter...much easier to care for than many other pets.

 

[KINGDELL91 10+ year member]

mines were a gift 15 years ago so i have no clue!!!

 

[Canaan 10+ year member]

They are illegal to sell...not to have.

But you see them for sell at flea-markets and stuff all the time.

I usually go up to the people selling them and give em a hard time...because they are part of the reason the market is not legal right now.

 

[NeverEnuffBass 10+ year member]

Funny this topic should come up...
My family owns a turtle farm in Jonesville, La.

We raise ~450,000-500,000 turtles a year

Usually get a 2-headed turtle every other year or so:

Also, we do get alot of 'special' turtles (flukes):

Been a turtle farmer for ~15yrs now. Spent my childhood on a shovel on the ponds.

There is the main pond at feeding time:

Every little dot is a turtle's head. (full grown red-ears mostly)

Also, to everyone that has a turtle:

Where did you buy/get your turtle?

How much did you pay?

You see, it is illegal to sell red-ears smaller than 4" in the US due to some BS about salmonella. We treat our eggs and raise 98%+ salmonella free crops. But the FDA still holds the turtle farming industry to an unreachable standard and it is driving us all out of business. We are currently trying to get the ban on baby turtles lifted in the US.

Anyone that has a turtle knows they make great pets, if you know how to tend to them.

A nice big tank w/ a good filter...much easier to care for than many other pets.

Thats a lot of freakin turtles

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wow.gif.23d729408e9177caa2a0ed6a2ba6588e.gif at the 2 headed turtle.

 

[KINGDELL91 10+ year member]

They are illegal to sell...not to have.

I know that but for then to have been a gift someone had to buy them for me!! i know a few pet shops where i stay that sell them while they are still tiny!!

 

[Scoobydoo 5,000+ posts]

 

[armitank]

that pretty much made my day... thank you

 

[Canaan 10+ year member]

How much do they usually sell for where you are from?

I have seen them for $5-15 in most places.

We stay 100% legal at our farms, but we are a bigger name farm.

Some other farms to sell illegally to pet shops and distributors, but little to nothing is done to them. If big name farms were to do so, the FDA would throw the book at em. Its a bunch of BS.

You are more likely to get salmonella from a baby chick, iguana, or snake then from a red-ear. Even untreated red-ears carry FAR less salmonella then those animals.

 

[Scoobydoo 5,000+ posts]

thats a lot of turtles, aren't you afraid they are going to unionize and attack?

turtles do that ya know

 

[KINGDELL91 10+ year member]

thats a lot of turtles, aren't you afraid they are going to unionize and attack?
turtles do that ya know

LMAO OMG!!! sounds silly but HUMMMMM something to think about LMAO!!!!

 

[DBfan187 5,000+ posts]

cool, now you guys just need a rat, some Bruce Lee movies, and some radioactive ooze.

 

[Adrian15XXX 10+ year member]

How much do they usually sell for where you are from?
I have seen them for $5-15 in most places.

We stay 100% legal at our farms, but we are a bigger name farm.

Some other farms to sell illegally to pet shops and distributors, but little to nothing is done to them. If big name farms were to do so, the FDA would throw the book at em. Its a bunch of BS.

You are more likely to get salmonella from a baby chick, iguana, or snake then from a red-ear. Even untreated red-ears carry FAR less salmonella then those animals.

what ever happens to the 2 headed turtles?

and where i get them from, for a baby RES i have to pay $7.50... kind of expensive

 

[KINGDELL91 10+ year member]

cool, now you guys just need a rat, some Bruce Lee movies, and some radioactive ooze.

yeah and a guy wearing silly ass blades for them to fight sounds good to me!!!

 

[Canaan 10+ year member]

what ever happens to the 2 headed turtles?
and where i get them from, for a baby RES i have to pay $7.50... kind of expensive

If you take care of em, they will live quite awhile. They really have to be watched over for the first few months though.

Whats crazy is the 2 head will fight for food

We also get albinos from time to time.

If we could sell our turtles for $1 each...my dad would be a HAPPY man.

The farm is boarder-line bankrupt right now, since its illegal to sell in the US...we are at the whim of the over seas market.

And on that note, those low-balling Chinese can kiss my ass.

 

[KINGDELL91 10+ year member]

YEah they will live very long mines should out live me!!!

 

[Adrian15XXX 10+ year member]

lmfao... well its hard to ship the baby turtles overseas because they're still sensative, so i will guarantee about 50% of what you send out there will die. but ruffly how many turtles do you think your farm owns?

 

[Canaan 10+ year member]

lmfao... well its hard to ship the baby turtles overseas because they're still sensative, so i will guarantee about 50% of what you send out there will die. but ruffly how many turtles do you think your farm owns?

WRONG //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Baby turtles are far more resilient than you would think.

We have VERY few die in shipping, but then again we have shipping down to a science.

Once we shipped 30,000 RES to Paraguay. While they were in the air, something happened w/ the government there (i dont remember what) and they were held at the airport. They sit at the airport for 6-7days before finally being shipped back to us. Our of 30,000...1 died. And that 1 was smash by a partition in the box when we taped it down.

It depends on what time of the year you ask that question...could be 500,000+.

Breeding stock is ~30K...IIRC.

 

[KINGDELL91 10+ year member]

wow