The Terrific Turt!!!!

THE TERRIFIC TURT!!!

And so the tale of the terrific turt begins on the 2nd of January, 2006. When I got turt on the 2nd of January, 2006, she had just hatched. Being the size of a 20cent coin, she was extremly minute. One could easily make the mistake handing her over whilst in the process of buying a 20cent sugar fix. However, I dearly loved my terrific, lovable, adorable turt since the second I saw her.

When we first moved into our new home, located in Bahrs Scrub (no, I shall not say near where that place I speak of is located, as you shall all laugh) I was amazed and delighted when I realised that we had a resident turtle in our dam. However, weeks later, I was even more delited when I realised that there was in fact 2 turtles. In the process of de-weeding the dam, I soon discovered that we in fact had many a turtle in our dam. Numbers in the 20+ at the time. those numbers soon increased.. at a rather rapid rate, may I add.

We now have many a turtle resident in our dam (estimates are at 30+), which resides on our block of land, at the bottom of the 'slope.' All of these turtles, may I inform you, delite in comming out of the water in an attempt to gnaw on my assorted fingers, toes, skin, hands, feet and any other part of me they can reach. And yes, I can easily assure you that they hurt when they manage to grab an unguarded, un-suspecting limb. This is simply because I am the colour of the food which I always come bearing for my fellow turtles. Oh my... did I just say 'fellow' turtles? I didn't mean that... I meant... Oh, darn. My cover is blown. My hidden identity of being a turtle has now been revealed. Anyway, I shall now continue with my tale......

There used to be a turtle at the dam (believe it or not) that was extremly big (even though the otehrs are all big) that was about 50cm long +. massive turtle. I loved her though. She was always the first to show up when I went down the dam and always the last to leave. She always enjoyed trying to eat me more often than the other turtles. And because of her size, she was really strong, and could bite REALLY hard- hard enough to draw blood... But unfortunately she dissapeared a little while ago... She simply stopped showing up for feeding =( I miss that turdle ='(

Then I thought there was a snapping turtle in our dam. I thought I was hallucinating when I first saw it. I was sitting on the bridge, feeding the turtles, when I briefly glimpsed a very weird, big headed turtle. It had weird, cool markings on its head. However I jumped when I saw it, and it swam away. Over the next couple of weeks, I would catch ocasional glimpses of the 'Elusive snapping turtle'. No-one believed me when I said we had a weird turtle in our dam. Until carl saw it... Eventually the elusive turtle started comming out of the water for brief moments to snatch up LOTS and LOTS of food.. Then it started showing up all the time. And then I realised that this turtle only ocasionally had the weird markings on its head, while othertimes they wern't there. Then I noticed that some days it was bigger than on others... Then finally I saw two weird looking, snapping turtle-like turtles at the same time. It was at this stage I started plotting ways to catch these turtles (without getting my fingers bitten off), so I could give them to the QLD government pest manage control place, as snapping turtles are considered as pests. Then I realised that there was a baby snapping turtle. This was the stage at which I started to worry. Then thankfully, Lesley lent me some turtle books, and I realised that these 'snapping turtles' were in fact Australian Saw Shelled Turtles, and that they are the only known native australian animal to successfully prey on cane toads! it was at this stage I decided that i may permit them to live in the dam.....

One day I was feeding the turtles, and a relatively small turtle came out of the water. As a sudden urge, I picked it up, as I had never actually looked at thses turtles properly. Then I realised that this turtle had a birth defect - instead of having four well formed legs and webbed feet, this turtle only had three properly formed legs- its forth was simply a pale creamy coloured stump. It really shocked me, because I didnt know it was possible. I put the turtle back in the dam, and decided from then on to give that turtle more food. It joined my favourite list of turtles.

Believe it or not, I can actually tell the turtles apart. I can tell in a number of ways; personality, size, markings, eyes, the amount of algae on their shells, the markings on their shells etc etc. Many of my favourites i nclude the one with bright yellow eyes (and I mean bright) the one with larger, thicker, bolder, well outlined yellow stripes down the side of her head (yes I can tell the difference between male and female turtles) , theres also the medium sized male with the greyish yellow, wide, not well defined stripe down the sides of his head. This particular male is always late for feeding, and rushes in at 100km/second, I swear. Then he'll rush around, climb out of the water and follow me, looking for food.


Now I have a gorgeous, beautiful little girl. (turtle...) She resides in my room, is a spoilt little brat, and eats fishes. This little turt of mine has also recently had a tank upgrade- she now has deeper water, live plants, a large area to bask etc etc. Have I mentioned I wub my turdle?? Oh, and incase you hadn't figured already, she is called turt. She was given this name as a mistake... When I first got het, dad asked what I was going to call her. Just in an attempt to be funny, I said 'Turt' and went inside the house. Later he asked me how turt was going. So from then on, She has been turt- and she always will be! Turt hatched on the 2nd of January, 2006. And im absolutly amazed at how much she has grown since then. I mean, I took a photo of her next to a 20cent coin the day I got her. her shell was only just the same size as the coin. so small! so gorgeous and cute =D Now she's grown so she's much bigger than the coin.. I keep taking progress photos so i can see how much she's grown.. And she eats so much now! I mean.. She downs 10 fish in the morning, 2 or 3 every 1 or 2 hours, and 10 again at night! This is my little turt im talking about! So I get the honor of going down the dam every couple of days, to catch fish. I have to distract the other turtles with food on one side, while I then run to the other, sit down with my big pool net, and catch fish. However, I know Im in trouble when I see little heads popping out of the water around me. Its about that time that I leave, because I get too distracted whilst catching the fishies, so the turtles find it as a perfect opportunity to bite me. I tell you, you jump when they bite.

Feel free to check out this site http://community.webshots.com/user/xvxShadowxvx to look at cool pictures of ma ickle turt! And if your bored enough, feel free to post comments!