A turtle rant.

**Surilda** · 08-25-2009, 04:05 PM

I have an aquatic turtle. He is two years old. I have
had him since he was only a hatchling.

He is not "just something that swims around a tank".
He is my baby and I love him. He is very tame and
I can hold him and scratch him under his chin and
I rub his "belly". Sometimes he falls asleep. lol

When I come home after being out, he goes wild
seeing me. He loves me too....

Two days ago he got very sick. Lethargic, not
eating, swollen eyes. I made him an appointment
at the vets. I had to wait a day to see him, so
I did everything I knew to do with my turtle
experience. By the time we went to the vets
this morning, he was much better....(sigh of relief)

So, what is my rant? It is people that have a "who
cares" sort of attitude because he is not a dog or cat
or a more "normal" pet.

I had people actually laugh when I said he had a vet
appointment. My sister is the only one who called
to see how he was and see what the vet said.

I love him just as much as other people love their
dog or cat or horse or whatever their choice of pet
is. People just don't seem to get this, and it seems
like to many people, "It's JUST a turtle".

Ok....off the soapbox now. Just needed to get that
off my chest.

**Debbie-cat** · 08-25-2009, 04:09 PM

I don't blame you for being upset. He is your pet and as you say you love him very much. Some people are just clueless. I hope he is doing okay and was the vet able to help him?

**savvy_sniper** · 08-25-2009, 05:10 PM

He is your pet and you love him - END of story! Sorry others don't understand. I have three dogs, BUT I also have an African frog.

I turn on the light to his tank in the morning and he comes out of his shelter and pops to the surface EVERY morning (to say hi I assume). He swims around real crazy when I walk NEAR his tank. He doesn't do that with my husband or anybody else. I LOVE my frog, Clawed!

I hope your turtle is better and you have many happy years together!

**Surilda** · 08-25-2009, 05:40 PM

He is doing better today!

He has a vitamin A deficiency. He should be
eating more vegetables, but he will only eat
romaine lettuce and sweet potato. A bit of
"tough love" might be in order now.

I am supposed to do extra water changes for
awhile and he is supposed to get tiny doses of
cod liver oil twice a week. He asked me what
he REALLY likes to eat, and I said worms. So,
I inject the cod liver oil into the worm and
then feed it to him. His other favorite is crickets,
but NO WAY could I hold a cricket...eek. lol

The vet said he looked really good overall. Hard to
believe this is the same turtle from two days
ago!

Just as a sidenote, the vet said alot of prepared
foods for pets lose alot of their vitamin potency
because you don't know how long they were
stored before they hit the shelves. He said to
check the labeling and see if there was a manu-
facturing date on it, but he said there probably
wasn't, and he was right.

Savvy, I am going to google African frogs and
see what they look like.

**PplAmanda** · 08-25-2009, 05:43 PM

Turtle make great pets. My grandparents used to raise HUGE tutrles (or maybe tortises?) in their back garden.
After listening to my dog bark half the night b/c I made him sleep outside because he sheds worse than my husband and smells twice as bad, I am thinking a turtle make make the BEST pet.

**savvy_sniper** · 08-25-2009, 09:55 PM

I am SO glad your turtle is doing better and you know what was wrong and how to make him better!

Clawed is an African frog. He is just a little frog that lives in the fish tank. I got him at WalMart several years ago. He has outlived three Betas.

**l8eebugg** · 08-25-2009, 11:02 PM

glad to hear your turtle is better. Hope he continues to improve. I agree about some people being clueless and not understanding how you could love an animal that is not a dog or cat. His lack of liking certain veggies reminds me of my dd1. lol

**Persimmon Lace** · 08-25-2009, 11:06 PM

Glad that he is better! I get that same thing about my chickens. Heck I only have 2 so yeah, I'm rather attached to them!

**bumplett** · 08-25-2009, 11:35 PM

<>

I'm so happy to hear that he's feeling better ~ you can always let us know about his vet appts and details ~ I don't think you'll hear any negative comments from this peanut gallery.

**madhen** · 08-25-2009, 11:48 PM

Hey, I took a wild baby field mouse to the vet.

He had a broken leg. I then nursed him back to health, after which he thanked me by breaking out of his cage and eating my walls.

I also used to have pet newts.

If your little turtle likes crickets, can you gut-load the crickets with vitamins and then feed them those? Do you have to hold them? If he has a "beach," the crickets will do fine just living there until he finds them. Not necessarily a great life for a cricket, but it will be happy until it becomes dinner. (Sorry for anybody out there with a pet cricket!!)