Vega | Viva | Dandi | Grace | Grant | Tumble | Linda

Pictures of Elle, Flo And Elric

In the first image, that's me when I was 8 years old, and found WildFlower outside my Aunt's house, in July of 2000. Ever since then WildFlower and I have grown quite a bit bigger and she now follows me like a shadow.

Shortly after decorating the outside of The Tunnels Okie was the first to bravely walk down the stairs in the fourth image. She insists on following me begging for bugs, even if that means climbing over anything that stands in her way!

Shawnee will do anything to stay in hiding when someone is in the turtle area, even if that means taking the hardest route to The Tunnels. She is often found hiding in the grass, under shrubs or under logs.

Tecumseh comes out 6~8am, but can sometimes be seen in the afternoon soaking in the river. He loves squash but turns his nose to worms. Being the only male it's surprising he prefers to stay a fair distance from the female turtles.

The first image is when Flo came out of hibernation in 2006. She was the first turtle to be seen that year and she came out before we even finished renovating! She now comes out from her favorite hiding spot under the shrubs as soon as she hears me, and follows me around just like WildFlower and Okie.

The pictures currently above were taken June 20th 2009, I was at my Uncles house IDing his ELEVEN turtles for him (the pictures will be on my website on a later date). I fell in love with her and took her home, simple as that! I plan to have many more pictures up in the future.

Pictures Of Vega

They grow up so fast! Vega spends most of his time in the left corner of his habitat. We didn't put those plants all in that same spot, he moved them there himself!

Compared to Vega, Viva is a bit of a runt, and looks more like a yearling than a juvenile. She used to only wake up once or twice a week to eat, but lately she's really getting more active and beginning to bask and soak. Maybe she'll finally start growing!

Found in 2008, Dandi is already starting to love her very own 'Turtle Town Jr.' She eats every day and has 2 favorite hiding spots near the food dish. You can see she has a peice of shell chipped off on the back, it's starting to heal and she isn't as dried out as she used to me.

I found Grace in the grass and put her in this small plastic shoe box (normally used to expand new substance in) to get a picture of her, and of course show my family what I found!

Whenever I find a new hatchling I get a picture of its carapace and plastron so I won't later get turtles confused, and then I soak them a little bit, and put them in their new home.

Again you see me placing the new hatchling in a plastic shoe box, and taking a quick couple of pictures. Tumble is the easiest to ID at a glance because of 3 very distinct dots on one of the Central Scutes.

There's that shoe box again, (I also use it to soak the small turtles in, and place the hatchlings in there with some substance while I clean their habitat). Right now I ID Linda by the many bright spots on the sides of her head.

It is so rare to have all the turtles out at the same time, but when they are, sometimes we gather them all up and try for a group photo. Easier said than done! The first image was taken in 2005 and is the best we have ever taken 5 of the adult turtles. Picture 10 and 11 were from 2007, when we tried again but that's the best we could do.

Images 12 through 15 are of Viva and Vega. The first of the four shows Viva used to be bigger, but Vega soon stole the lead and became the biggest sibling.

Since they were all found at the same time I have decided to group them together. In the 6th image you can clearly see Dandi is the largest, that's because s/he was found exactly 3 months earlier. Comparing their pictures to those of Viva and Vega I've come to realize that they are all defiantly Ornate / Three Toed hybrids. The father is 'Tecumseh', but who knows who which Ornates are the mothers.

In the very last image see if you can find the 3 hidden hatchlings!

Elle was found under the bushes shortly after the renovations of Turtle Town, the first image is right after said event. She was the smallest hatchling yet and very dried out, she passed on June 3rd.

In the last image, Flo (on the left) and Elric (right) were bought in Pensacola, Florida over vacation and driven the long way home to Las Vegas. We didn't know a thing about R.E.S and because of our impulse buying both turtles passed shortly after being brought home.