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Hi Everyone! My Name is Sharon and I live in Orange County, Calif. I’ve been a member of this group site for awhile but haven’t really made myself known until recently when I put in my 2 cents worth. My husband and I keep many turtles/tortoises but this will be my first year keeping Diamondbacks for a full season. I have 4 adults that are about 5 years old. For now, they live outside in a large plastic horse trough (160 gal.) like Jonathan has. This has been home to them since they were little. The wonderful friend who gave them to me – heats the pond in the winter. I was wondering if this is needed or not? I have no problem with doing it – I was just wondering if it will have any effect on them as for breeding next spring. I know with some tortoises, they NEED that hibernation period if they are going to have a successful breed in the spring. I have 2 males and 2 females and would like to see in the spring if I could maybe get some babies from them. We do not breed any of our tortoises/turtles but I’m really wanting to have babies!! I thought that the diamondbacks would be a good choice. Anything special I need to do with their pond during the winter months? In our other ponds last winter – I didn’t see the Koi or the 2 baby sliders until the weather warmed up and the water got up near 68 degrees. I have 2 baby db that I bought at the first of spring. They are probably about 14 -16 months old now but one is much bigger than the other so I have to keep them separated. The big one kept biting the butt cheek of the little one! At what age or size should they be before they can go out in the pond with the adults? They are about 2 1/2 ” and 3 1/2″. I will be keeping them inside this winter of course, but hope that in the spring they will be ready to go outside? Also – while keeping them inside for the winter should I keep their tanks heated? What temp.? From the amount they’ve grown since I’ve had them and with the one being so much smaller – I’m wondering if it has some problem with shell development.- I think they probably had a hard start in life. The breeder did tell me- they were healthy and all – just older than he usually keeps them because he wanted them to do some catching up. There was about 6 that he held back from selling due to their size. Does this sound right? They have grown in leaps and bounds since I’ve had them, but I think they are on the small size for their age?! Sorry for all the questions – that’s what happens when your new to a species!! I don’t want to make any mistakes that could create any problems for my beauties. I will greatly appreciate any and all information and tips that you can give me. Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday weekend! Thanks again everyone – Sincerely, Sharon
Hi Sharon, Welcome to the ranks of the terrapin keeper! In fact, if you have pics, I can add them to our Terrapin Keeper page at: http://www.geocities.com/dterrapin Don’t know too many people in O.C. with terps except for Vickie Hays and Barbara Davidson… I know breeders that have gotten eggs out of their terps without hibernating them. However, I’m not sure if the fertility rate was quite as good. Personally, I will be hibernating my northerns and concentrics this winter and my ornates will be the only ones going inside. If you have northerns, it probably wouldn’t hurt to not heat their pond up. You will likely obtain some eggs from them next year if the females are at least 6″, well-adjusted and nourished. The thing I might do with your pond in the winter is cover it up!!! Be wary of roaming racoons in search of food during the winter time… I have kept 3.5″ juveniles outside with my adults without any issues. However, I wouldn’t mix them any smaller than that. Heating the tank is up to you as long as room temps stay at least 68F. Raising the temp will promote higher metabolism and faster growth rate. 3.5″ is a perfectly acceptable size for a yearling. 2.5″ is a tad bit on the small size for captives but perfectly normal for wild specimens. I wouldn’t worry too much. I also had a runt that is catching up nicely with her pondmates now that I’ve had her outside for the year. Cheers! -Chun — In diamondbackterrapins@y…, Tom & Sharon Paquette
Thanks so much for the information Chun!! I personally know Vickie Hays from the Turtle Club we belong to. It was her little babies that she would bring in to share with the group that made me turn green with envy!! I kept telling my husband that one of these days I was going to have some. And those days came this year!! My adults females are very good size – well over 6.5 “? The males however are probably only about 5”. They are hardy eaters and I give them a varied diet. “I think?) Reptomin as a staple – but also meal worms, earthworms, shrimp and AquaMax ( which I just discovered they like by accident. – Dropped in the wrong food and they just pounced on it.). I don’t know what species they are. The adults are a light/dark green on their shells with a cream colored skin and tiny black dots all over. The hatchlings are very dark shell with light skin and black dots. They came from N. Carolina from a Charlie Green. The adults came from Mimi Loutrel who lives in New Mexico now. Our friend Betsy, who gave me the adults – also gave me the pond, pump, filter, plants, cork, heater and turtles. Everything I guess you could say came complete. Just set up and add water! When we cleaned out the pond – we found a couple of empty egg shells in the bottom. We don’t know if a bird had maybe dropped them in from another of Betsy’s ponds or if the db had laid them – possibly on the cork? It has a little “nest” of grass growing on it. Anyhow – it doesn’t really matter to me what type they are ( although I would love to know) I love them dearly! Concentrics sound familiar – does that sound like what my adults are? I know it’s probably very hard to tell by my “little description” – like looking for a needle in a haystack??!! I’m terrible with pictures – but will see about a friend taking some and then could find out what species they are. My next project will be to one day have the “ornates” !! I have Vickie Hays to thank for this desire. We are very consciences of Raccoon’s etc. In fact – we have just been dealing with a skunk that’s been visiting for the last couple of weeks. We think he’s gone – at least for now. All our ponds are covered real good and clamped down with hardware cloth – then pavers. Our other turtles are locked up each night – even our big 100+ lb. babies!! We try our very best and don’t take chances, it’s not worth it. We also have 2 dogs that are on duty all night – they’re up and down and in and out of the house with any little noise they hear. So far, we’ve been lucky with the skunk that it hasn’t sprayed them!! They’ve been right up in it’s face – dummy dogs. Well I won’t keep you any longer. I really appreciate all the information and anything else you or someone else would like to add. Have a good one! Sharon diamondback_terrapin wrote:
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