Hey guys!! I hope I can post this here! I wasn't sure where else to post these :(
So the other day my sister was walking in our neighborhood and one of our neighbors approached her. She told my sister that she was leaving for a week and had two turtles and needed someone to take care of them.
So my sister took them without asking mom (which made mom upset of course) but they ended up keeping them for the week (we knew our neighbor was gone because her chickens weren't there).
Well this week makes it two weeks since we've spoken to our neighbor and we hear her chickens. We're 100% sure she doesn't want them back but of course we have to ask before we find them homes.
So our problems are:
-We only have a 10 gallon and we know that one turtle needs 55 gallons and two in a 10...not good.
-They are babies and supposedly fit in the palm of your hand (I'm in college so I have yet to see them but I'll be home in a week!) AND when mom went to petco they showed her the size they're suppose to be in order to be sold...and then they informed my mom that in fact it takes about 8-10 years for them to actually reach that size...these guys are babies...so not old at ALL
-I know releasing into the wild isn't always good but we thought about putting them in a friend's friends pond. Well that's cancelled because we found out that they're native to Flordia, the water temperature cannot go below 70-75 and I believe it's illegal (we then thought maybe we should build our own little pond, if they make heaters for outdoor ponds, but then the cost of actually building one may be too much for us).
-We will NOT give them back to the lady because she had those two in a tank that was maybe a 5 gallon (I've been told it was smaller than the 10 but I haven't actually seen it). And she obviously doesn't know/want to take care of them (not like we know but we're trying).
SO all in all we would love to find someone who already knows how to and can provide for these guys. Obviously a very large home with heated water and what not. It also seems that rescues will NOT take these little ones because there are SO many of them out there and she said about 90-95% are discarded because they aren't 'cute anymore'. They can also (obviously if they're taken care of) live between 50-75 years. With the minimum care they can make it to 35. I imagine the reason they don't live that long is because people are stupid.
One thing that really upsets me is that when my mom went to ask someone we know (with her own petshop...not a nice place though...) about the turtles she saw one that was gorgeous and asked about them and the lady said they could live to 150 years....WTF! Why is it legal to sell an animal that not only can NOT live in a small container BUT that can outlive you times 2!
I know I have fish and they deserve the ocean rather than a tank (which is why I'm slowly moving up tank sizes and will hopefully get a 15 gallon soon). But for birds (who are caught and brought here) and other animals that out live us and deserve the outdoors of their natural habitat!
So anywho we need help because we're willing to do a lot but that's a lot of money we don't have to spend AND we're hoping to move at some point so we don't want to spend all the money on a pond and in a few years 'Let's move!'. Especially if those guys are still there!
Help, please?
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