I took these photos today, 1/29/06.

Here is the setup without the turtle and with the heater showing. There is no water in it here. I added the rock on top of the Duetto since it's missing one of its suction cups and keeps wanting to float.



Here is Tator waiting in the plant pot while I'm cleaning. The focusing is so bad with my digital camera whenever I try to take his photo.



Here is the setup with Tator and with the heater covered. I bought this plastic log thing for a ridiculous $13 and some because it looked like it would cover the heater which it did. The thing is, it has 4 openings. I have cut pieces of vinyl-coated hardware cloth (rabbit wire) and tried to cover the openings but the pieces are just sitting there so I hope Tator can't take them off. If he gets into the fake log, he could get stuck or burnt again. I aimed the Duetto output into the fake log so that water flows down the heater and out the other end. The water movement in the tank is way down now since it dissipates through the log which saves Tator from having to fight the current but that was good for him to get a workout. I made the water a little deeper. It's about 2.5". Tator is about 1.5" long.



Here is a close-up of Tator in the setup. If you look between the scutes, you can see that whitish expansion I was talking about. When I pick him up now, I can just feel he's fatter and growing awfully fast.

Are you going to put him in your pond when hes bigger? He looks cool!

the setup looks goods, great idea for the heater arrangement. i see the white area of new growth, the best lighting and diet should help keep that from getting any worse, as well as help it get better. although...he doesnt look like a painted hatchling to me. i want to say florida cooter or something like that. i have seen a few just like that before, just cant remember exactly what they were. painted hatchlings are usually (from the ones ive seen) black shelled with less yellow on the head. they may have some coloring on the edge of the carapace, but in general it doenst look like a painted to me. any pics of the plastron? where/how did you get him exactly?

He's no Florida cooter. He was dug out the ground less than 10 miles from me in MD by someone who found my web site. Here's a plastron shot from 10/13/05:



I won't put him in my pond because we have a ton of predators like raccoons, herons, cats, foxes (who wake me up yelping and dug into my chicken house a few years ago killing my two favorite chickens), dogs, etc. Plus, my ponds aren't fenced, and my elderly parents won't allow me to fence them.

still doesnt look like a painted to me. http://www.dnr.state.md.us/wildlife/captive.asp
lists red belly turtles as being native to MD, they are here in VA as well, forgot about those. thats what i think it is.

thats me again. google imaged red belly turtle and they look like your little guy. i think that site may have some good details about the legalities of tator, didnt read through the whole thing though.

Which photos did you look at that looked like Tator? I found only one under red-belly turtle that looked like his bottom but none of the rest match as far as the carapace. I've seen many painted turtle baby photos (or identified as such) that do look like Tator. As far as I know, around here, painted turtles are fairly common and red-belly turtles are very rare. Is the red-belly turtle the same as the red-bellied slider?

The adult painteds and red-bellies don't look like Tator because babies are more colorful. I was under the impression that the red plastron and patterning fades with age in a painted turtle and becomes mostly yellow. I do see some baby painted turtles (or claimed as such) with yellow plastrons in my search now. Tator looks more like the Western painted which is not possible.

Anyway, now you've got me questioning it. I guess he could be an Eastern red-bellied turtle. How will I know for sure?

Ok, this site has photos of baby red-bellies that look just like Tator. They say they're endangered. Ut oh, then I'm even more of a criminal and depriving a rare species of its freedom!

http://forums.kingsnake.com/view.php?id=591373,591373

Also, that MD DNR site, I've seen. I called the permit people. There is no legal way for me to have any turtle under 4" period. Once he's bigger than that, it's okay to have just one.

So how many of the photos on my baby turtle page are misidentifed then? I need to fix them! Can you check for me? There are two Tator photos in there (from Cindi) under painted turtles but what about the rest?

http://www.fishpondinfo.com/turtles/babyphoto.htm#painted

So is Tator then a "Eastern red-bellied turtle," "redbelly turtle," "red-belly turtle," "red belly turtle," "red-bellied slider," "red belly slider, "red bellied slider," "red-belly slider," or something else? Are they all the same? I see it spelled and done so many different ways.

I guess whatever he is, it doesn't change the care, etc.

that kingsnake site said they were endangered in MA, not necessarily MD. i dont think the eastern painteds have a red plastron even as babies, none of them that i have had or seen did. i cant seem to find that pic on google this time. it looked just like him though. and im not used to seeing them here, but one lady did bring one in to the pet shop i was working at, not the same one im at now though. she ahd found it in her yard. i think it was just called a northern red bellied cooter. this is the VA site on the species. other sites have called the same subspecies the eastern redbelly turtle, so exact spelling and phrasing of the common name shouldnt be important. the VA site does not say "threatened" or "endangered" or anything like that at the top, which it will do if they are. http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/wildlife/spec...y.asp?id=030057

the following site specifically says that the MA sub-species (Plymouth redbelly turtle) is endangered (says nothing about the other sub-species being endangered), thats the one the kingsnake forum thread was talking about.
http://www.wnyherp.org/field-guide/reptile...elly-turtle.php

What about this site that says these are baby Eastern painted turtles? See how red the plastron is? Are those in fact Western painted turtle babies?

http://petbargainsdirect.com/product/THL

Can you check my baby photo page and let me know if I need to fix the identifications on any of the babies (aside from the Tator shots) as far as you think/know? I want the correct information. Thanks.

that site looks like they either misidentified them or just took a pic of any painted. i have never seen a eastern like that and i dont remember reading about them having any red on the plastron when i was trying to learn the differences in all the painted. i will see if i can find any of the sites i used for that. i will check the baby turtle pages, no time now, probably tonight after work.

baby ids look good to me (except the ones of tator, the ones from cindi are tator, right?). the ones from paula dont seem like any painteds i have seen, but not different enough to worry about in my opinion.

Ok, thanks. I'm trying to finish up my turtle page renovations within a week or two and get them on-line. Thanks to you, I've added a new short section on red bellied turtles. Yes, Cindi brought Tator to me. Her hubby dug him out of her potato patch, hence the name. He probably would have overwintered underground.