The Story Of Turtle Town:

My family and I live in Las Vegas, Nevada. We currently have 12 Box Turtles. Five adults, two juveniles, and five young ones that live indoors.

In July of 2000 we visited family in Oklahoma. While we were there we "saved" 3 of the local Box Turtles from being run over by cars on the road and brought them home with us to Las Vegas.

Ornate Box Turtles 'Okie' and 'WildFlower', and a Three Toed 'Helmet' were our first three turtles brought back with us to our home in Vegas. We did not have a designated turtle area yet, and just let the turtles roam our quarter acre backyard. Because of this, Helmet went missing over the winter, and we assume he escaped somehow. We learned our lesson and place WildFlower and Okie into a small gated garden area of our yard.

May of 2005 we went back to Oklahoma hoping for a male, and collected 3 more turtles, Ornate 'Shawnee', and Three Toed 'Flo' and 'Tecumseh'. They get along very well.

On October of 2005, while walking in the turtle area, my mom came across a little baby ornate turtle that my dad named 'Viva'. We had no idea how to care for hatchlings, so I quickly went online to research. After Viva was settled in, almost a week later on a rainy day my mom came across another hatchling and named it 'Vega'. This hatchling had escaped under the gate from the turtle area and made its way into a sunken patio and couldn't get back out, which was a good thing because it could have fallen into the pool.

At that time, Turtle Town was basically just desert with 2 shrubs and rather hot and dry. All the research for the hatchlings inspired me to research and plan a Box Turtle habitat. My dad took a week off work and our family of four built a beautiful safe enclosure for our pets.

On March 18th, 2006, after 9 days of work, and over $400 a new Turtle Town was all set for when the sleeping turtles emerged from their hibernation, which is usually the first day of spring each year. In April of 2006 mom found a 3rd baby turtle under the shrubs, the tiniest turtle yet. Mom named her 'Elle', Short for 'Elvis', or until it was old enough to tell the gender. June 3rd, after 3 short days of showing signs of illness, the sweet hatchling passed from life. This web site is dedicated to her loving memory.

Two more years pass, and we are up to date in 2008. On July 5th, this time my dad finds a hatchling. I have always wanted to name a turtle 'Dandi' (Short for Dandelion), and after running out and buying a new storage bin for Dandi and decor left over from the other two hatchlings, Dandi was all settled in and is doing well along with our other two young turtles we keep safely indoors until big enough to join their family outdoors in Turtle Town.

Dandi inspired me to update our web site, so here we are; all new content, I started from scratch!

My Motto Is: Purchase Pets, NOT VICTIMS!
There's a story behind this, I used to be known to buy on impulse, or even just abduct any random animal like a frog from a pond and take it home, of course with my ignorance to taking care of the animals they normally never lasted long, and ended up just being a victim rather than a pet.

My family always joked with me, "Stop bringing home victims!"

This all changed when we found Viva (See: The Story Of Turtle Town for more info). I soon found researching the proper care of an animal was fun, especially going out and buying all the equipment it needed to thrive. Eventually I started doing this before even obtaining a new pet, like Hermit Crabs for example.

Soon my family only told me to "Stop being a nester!" because I'd drive them crazy with facts about the new friend I wanted to make!

If your thinking about adding a new family member to your critter-collection please research and buy everything it needs and set it up before bringing your new pal home, let it hit the ground running!

Where Do We Live?
We're the red mark! The blue mark is where we found all of our adult Box Turtles, right in the middle of Ornate and Three Toed territory. This map also shows the range of each American Box Turtle species.