This is my "What Not To Do" page. Right now I don't have any turtles.

When a friend of ours moved to Florida, she left her collection of turtles behind. If I can recall correctly, there were six of them living in her backyard (one Wood Turtle, the rest Box Turtles). She asked if we wanted any, and I decided to take two home.

What Not To Do: Turtles live a long time. Box turtles live a VERY long time. They are slow to mature and don't have very many babies. Turtles do not understand roads or cars, and while their shells are wonderfully designed to protect them from predators, it does not protect them from cars or lawn mowers. Turtles are suffering. Wild turtles really need all the numbers they can get, and they can't always be released after living in captivity. Please do not collect turtles from the wild to keep as pets. Please find out the laws for keeping turtles in your state. My friend and I did not know the law and collected/owned far more turtles than is allowed. Taking breeding adult turtles out of their territory hurts the species.

What I got was more than I bargained for. The turtles were two adult female box turtles, and at the time they were hibernating. I did some research, learned about their needs and how to take care of them properly, and still managed to do a pretty bad job. I built a pen but it was flimsy and inadequate, I improved their diet but it wasn't great, and while I was very good about giving them fresh water daily (a must with turtles!)... I pretty much ignored them otherwise.

What Not To Do: Don't get a pet unless you actually want one. My turtles got less than 100% in regards to their care and housing. Not because I'm stupid or cruel, but because at the time I wasn't really interested in them.

Because the pen wasn't well planned, the turtles were able to escape. I would find them in the yard and put them back, no harm done. I started planning on building a bigger, escape proof pen. Then winter came.

What Not To Do: Do NOT get a pet before you research their needs. My turtles got less than 100% in regards to their care and housing because when I got them I had NO IDEA how much work they'd really be.

The turtles got out into the yard to find a better place to hibernate. I poked around the pen for them and found... not two adult female turtles, but three hatchlings! Apparently, one of the girls had been gravid ("pregnant"). I did some quick research and found out that turtle hatchlings are delicate and easy to kill, even for experienced reptile keepers.

Winter came and went. The hatchlings thrived, and the adults were still missing. That spring, I found a fourth hatchling. Unlike its siblings, it had hibernated and was still as tiny as the first three had been when I first found them. The four were named Terre, Lina, Pene and Caro. Rearrange the names and you get Terrepene Carolina, the species name.

As interesting as they are and as much as I enjoyed keeping the little guys, I gave them to a trusted local wildlife rehabilitator who specializes in reptiles and snakes.

Trogdor was a young snapping turtle. My neighbor found it in his backyard and I saved it from certain doom. Snapping turtles can grow to have a shell length of 12 inches. An adult can easily break your fingers, and possibly even amputate them. A fully grown snapper should have a 300 gallon tank or pond, and will need some major filtration to keep their water sanitary. Knowing this, I only kept Trogdor for a few weeks before releasing it back into the wild (in a far more suitable place than my neighbors back yard). I would have liked to keep Trogdor, it was an interesting and unusual pet, but right now I don't have the space or money to care for a snapping turtle.