Female Northern DBT for adoption or release back into Chesapeake bay

DBTerrapin / Forums / Diamondback Terrapins / Female Northern DBT for adoption or release back into Chesapeake bay

  • This topic has 1 reply, 1 voice, and was last updated 20 years ago by Steve.
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  • jonnyk22222
    August 16, 2006 at 6:12 pm #23982

    Hello everyone, about two years ago I acquired an adult female that was taken from a Chesapeake Bay area fishmarket. I am moving soon, school is getting more intense, and I do not feel that I am able to (or really have ever been able to) give this animal the top tier care that she deserves. I cannot think of a better group of people that may be interested in giving this animal a good home. First let me stress that this is not a beginner turtle and I’m not just going to send her out to the first person that e-mails me saying “I want it!”. Fortunately she is a very good feeder, after nearly three months of initially refusing all food she will greedily eat smelt and any other salt water fare you may offer. She absolutely refuses to eat any pelleted food. Secondly, this animal has what I refer to as “perrenial shell rot”. It comes, it goes away, it comes back again. This may due to the my inablitly to meticulously monitor the salinity of the environment, or she may have a predisposition to this condition (even more so that other wild caught terrapins). If you are considering breeding her, shortly after I acquired her she dropped around 20 eggs in her pool. Only one hatched and it didn’t live long but this could be expected with the amount of stress she was subjected to. Thus, she would likely be a very good addition to a breeding colony. The other option if anyone is willing to assist me is to release her back into the Chesapeake Bay. Though I think this would be ideal for this animal I have reservations about doing this. Firstly I would not know the exact location of her capture and thus could not return her to the exact area and secondly there would be the chance that she would be captured again for market. I suspect the shell rot would permanently resolve in a natural sun and bay water environment. She is otherwise healthy and has not been exposed to other turtles so I feel there is virtually zero risk of introducing a foreign disease to the native DBT population but I guess I could not say this risk is absolutely zero. For this reason I think I am leaning towards adoption rather than release back into the wild. If you are interested in this animal, and can provide top level husbantry, please contact me. I am willing to ship this animal overnight air but I must ask that the receiver cover the cost of the overnight shipping. If you can pick this animal up or meet me a reasonable distance for Columbus, OH this is also an option (and one that I prefer). Thanks and I hope that someone can help me find her a good home.

    Steve
    August 16, 2006 at 7:41 pm #23983

    — In diamondbackterrapins@yahoogroups.com, “jonnyk22222”

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