Thanks so much for answering my questions Greg! I appreciate you putting in all the time and effort to help us learn about these super fascinating, yet often overlooked creatures.
I do handle my razorback musk turtle, but only once daily when I put him into his aquatic feeding container. Otherwise, he's left to his own devices. He defiantly recognizes when it's feeding time.
Every time I watch your turtle videos makes me want to drive across state to look for some native AZ turtles (of course I can’t find them near by 🙄 lol) great video, man! Always enjoy them
Greg, whether or not a turtle enjoys handling or is stressed out by it depends on the species and the individual. Musk turtles tend to like being left alone, although they will respond to conditioning (e.g., feeding time). I raised a cooter Bruno from a hatchling and had him for 30 years, and Bruno loved to have his neck stroked -- he would stretch his neck all the way out so there was no mistaking that. I also used to turn him loose in the apartment and he loved to explore -- he was absolutely not stressed out by the experience. One time he saw a mouse run under the dresser, and it was the funniest thing seeing Bruno try to corner that mouse. If you raise a turtle from a hatchling with handling and human contact, in many cases they will respond positively and not be stressed at all, in fact they may crave it like Bruno. My advice is dont force it, but do keep an open mind about it.
@@GregsTurtleHaven My wife and I love your turtle videos, thank you for sharing. We envy you having room for ponds filled with turtles. We live in an apartment, which is why we have small musks in a 20 gal long. BTW, cooters and sliders are the most intelligent, friendly turtles, though the red ears can be aggressive with other turtles. Bruno the cooter was gentle, and excellent with children, but the mice ... FEARED HIM.
Bro my Mississippi Map turtle doesn't eat anything else besides shrimps. What else can I feed it and how often should I feed it. It's a juvenile of about 2cm. Please advise?
Hi, Greg! I am from Hungary :) And I also have a mississippi (false) map turtle (male). Is it normal for him to be out of the water rather than in the water? After a while he keeps stretching out of the water tank. (He has a water heater, and a rock to climb out on. ) We don't keep him in big water - there's enough water to cover it completely him...but it doesn't bother him much. Sleeping a lot since november. I found him a place in the room, gave him an old T-shirt and he crawls under it. This is the third time he's gone back to sleep after 2 weeks in a wet environment. I have heard that the can hibernate, is this normal? An other interesting thing, when he's in the water he watches me very carefully. He's close to me and he's always watching me. If I get up and leave the room he follows me. As soon as I get home he comes off the stone and flaps back and forth in the water. Otherwise he is not afraid.He doesn't bite at all, in fact, I give him gammatus and he picks it out of my fingers. When he was tiny and I was watching TV, he would be outside with me, climb up on my shoulder and nestle under my long sleeves and sleep for an hour. It was not pleasant for me, but who cares. :) I have never read so much about a tortoise from anyone. I woke him up once because I was afraid he would get hurt. Once he woke up on his own. Then came the "wet" period and the eating.... if he wanted to eat. So... what do you think? :) He is an "apartment" turtle not a swamp turtle.
Why is the Texas Map Turtle not as popular as the Mississippi Map Turtle? I am curious because I read that the Texas Map is smaller which usually means it has less requirements. Thanks!
Get a common aka northern map turtle they are good in cold weather. They're found as far up as Canada. They hibernate in frozen over rivers during winter!
My turtle is presumably a "False Map 🐢". She was an abandoned girl (in Hong Kong) until I took her home 8 months ago. Her age is unknown to me as her growth rings are not all that pronounced! 🤔 To monitor her growth, I started weighing and measuring her a few months back at a two months' interval. The last reading on 29.4.2020 was 337 gm., carapace: 13 cm, plastron: 10 cm. Two previous readings taken on 28.2.2020 and 25.12.1019 were both 240 gm., carapace: 12 cm, plastron: 9 cm. Hence, I am a little concerned about this drastic weight gain of 97 gm. in two months! Could she be carrying eggs or does she possibly have other health problems? 🤔 I have been feeding her every day using the "head size" method. Her diet mainly consists of 50% turtle pellets, 50% fresh food consisting of fish, scallops, clams, egg white, corn, salad greens (although she didn't like salad greens up until a few weeks ago). 😋 Due to my space-tight environment, she has been kept in a relatively small tank in deep water, but I do take her out to parks and streams every now and then. She's a good swimmer and a good walker. She has taken me by surprise the other day walking some 300 metres in 1.5 hours in a straight line on a jogging track in our local park (on 17.4.2020)! 🤭 Have I done anything wrong with her diet/its frequencies? Is there an explanation for her sudden weight gain? How could I tell if she's an adolescent or a mature adult, if she's ready to lay eggs and what do I need to do preparing her for it? Please could you introduce me to your own False Map Turtle in the next video so that I can pick up some tips off you in looking after my own 🐢! 🙏 (written on 10.5.2020)
Ok a lot to break down here, I’ll do my best to cover each point: 1. Growth rings aren’t a reliable indicator of age, as a turtle can put on a lot of growth in a year and have multiple rings, or not put on any at all. Don’t worry about age, if you didn’t get it as a hatchling you’ll never know. 2. The growth and weight gain seem about right, healthy turtles should feel heavy. Fat and unhealthy turtles will have fat bulging around the legs. 3. What pellet diet are you feeding? Pellets should be less than 50% of the turtles diet, especially if it is a lower quality pellet. 4. Don’t bother feeding corn, for a map turtle there’s no nutritional value there, and they don’t eat much vegetation. Try adding some krill and shrimp to the diet. Female map turtles eat mollusks and crustaceans almost exclusively, so that’s why it naturally ignored the salad greens. -I’ll try to include my false map in a future video, for now try to get your turtle a bigger enclosure with a nice dry basking area. Hope this helps
Thanks for your very detailed reply to my questions, Greg! I have been feeding my False Map Turtle with two kinds of Asian Pellets, one is said to have added Vitamin A, C, D3 and E with crude protein 38%, crude fibre 8% and calcium 4.5%. I don't know about the other one as the packaging is missing. I took my turtle down to the beach the other day and she was so keen to find her (long) way to the water, only to be stopped in the nick of time. Then I put her back to her portable container filled with fresh water to keep her happy for the next two hours. Otherwise, when she was allowed to roam free again, I saw her hiding herself underneath a baby pram, kicking up sand with her hind legs as if preparing herself for motherhood or simply to lay eggs (my wild, wild guess only)! So what does such behaviour indicate please?
I recently received a few southern painted and yellow belly slider hatchlings. Excuse my ignorance, but 50 degrees is freezing for us out here. Is 50 degrees too cold for hatchlings or should I bring them inside?
Lawrence 50 is fine, they will become inactive and seek shelter under leaves, plants or mud. In late fall, I will bring hatchlings in when overnights are below 50, and just get them through the first winter indoors since hatchlings are already delicate. That said, I have many hatchlings I never find in the fall that pop up in spring and they overwintered just fine without me. Use your best judgement, but painted turtles and sliders are very cold hardy
do you think a mississippi map can be kept with other turtles? i have a 8.5 inch red eared and a 6 inch painted, i keep them well fed so they aren’t that hostile
Gregs Turtle Haven very helpful, one last question do you think keeping a male mississippi with the red eared and painted being females be okay? is having different gender and species together okay or if i’m getting different species should they all be the same gender
Ideally you would house same species together, or species that naturally share range. Mississippi maps and red eared sliders share range in Louisiana and Texas, so it’s a natural fit. They should be ok together, just watch for aggression
@@GregsTurtleHaven I have two of them and I keep them with my slider but I can tell they have different personality and stuff.they do fine together, map turtles are just hyped and aggressive,❤️them
Hey Greg I have a baby Mississippi Map and it will only eat shrimp and live worms but won't eat any pellets I give it, should I be worried? Idk what to do :(
Young map turtles can be slow to adjust to commercial foods. Keep feeding it what you know it will eat, and offer a couple pellets. Eventually it should try the pellets. I don’t feed my maps commercial turtle pellets, mine eat krill, shrimp, snails, crickets and sinking cichlid pellets. Keep feeding and give it some space at feeding time, they are a more shy species
