She was given to Uncle Joe by his son (my cousin) along with 10 other turtles, all Three Toed. They all still belong to my cousin but he has so many turtles on his property, and it was getting a little crowded so Uncle Joe currently has them in his backyard for now.
I asked if I could do the liberty of gathering all of his turtles up and IDing them. Uncle Joe was surprised to hear he had 11 total roaming his backyard.
A portion of the turtles are wild-caught Oklahoma native Box Turtles, the rest are the offspring. They have been in captivity for 9 or more years, that's the jest of the information given to me over the past few months.
I quickly agreed with my cousin that they are all Three Toed when I looked at the gathering of turtles (lured out by the sweet smell of cantaloupe and a rain-storm of water from a sprinkler).
I had seen some of the turtles several times before, I had even given some names, but up until now I had only seen about 5 different ones. I sexed and took pictures of each of them to keep track as I went along, also naming them (my Uncle doesn't name them, so he said I could, since I'm so good at telling turtles apart anyway). One turtle in the group stood out to me.
Easter is the first time I saw "Gretta"; her original name I simply thought up after finding her. Her size is what stood out to me so much and caused me to remember her, and know it was her again and again. I fell in love with Gretta, just because she was so huge, and very friendly, she had a cute personality.
My Cousin's wife now tells me this could possibly be the exact same turtle that she received from a friend from work named Kezia, who could no longer take care of it due to constant vet visits. My Cousin took it off her hands, and then handed it over to my Uncle a few years ago. Being as they don't keep track of the turtles there is no way to be sure that this is that particular turtle.
Not knowing her true originals is making it hard to verify her true subspecies.
I liked her so much (and always knew exactly where to find her in my Uncles back yard). She's easy to spot due to her size and completely relaxed when you pick her up. It was obvious I liked her, finally my Cousin asked if I wanted her, of course I said sure!
Kezia's original owner was named Kezia, which is how I came to name her that, I named my turtle after her.
After much communication with other experts on a number of forums and via email most of us believe Kezia is a Three Toed / Gulf Coast hybrid that's several years old, and was probably born in the wild where the TT and GC territory meet. She has the shell and markings of a Gulf Coast but the three toes of a Three Toed, along with a few other characteristics.
She moved into Turtle Town on the 21st, sadly I had no camera. But I will share the pictures I have now. These are the pictures I took while IDing all of the turtles, I'll be sure to share more when I get my camera back!
There's a You Tube video up as well!
Check it out!
I'll have pictures of the other 10 turtles up later when I decide on names, and make sure they are all sexed properly and easy to tell apart (there was a bit of a mix up with the pictures haha).
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