Turtle and Tortoise Quiz Answers

These are the answers to the quiz I had last Friday.

1. Pancake Tortoise 
2. Musk/Stinkpot Turtle
3. African Spur-Thighed Tortoise
4. Aldabra Tortoise
5. Leopard Tortoise
6. Mata Mata
7. Gopher Tortoise
8. Three-Toed Box Turtle
9. Snake-Necked Turtle
10. Smooth/Spiny Softshell Turtle

Turtle and Tortoise Quiz

I will give the question and you have to come up with the correct breed of turtle or tortoise. The correct answers will be given next Friday. Feel free to comment, leaving your answers. Have fun!

1. This tortoise is very flat
2. This turtle shares a trait with the skunk
3. This large tortoise has the name of something a cowboy would wear in its name
4. This is the second largest tortoise species
5. This tortoise has the same name as a wild cat
6. This large, weird turtle has a head that looks sort of like a dead leaf, for camouflage
7. This digging tortoise lives in the desert and has the same name as a rodent
8. The first part of this turtle's name is the same as the first part of the name of a kind of sloth
9. This turtle has a long neck, hence its name
10. This turtle has a smooth or spiny, leathery shell.

The Longest Lived Pets

I thought it might be interesting to find out what the longest life spans for different pet animals are. Here are the results of my searching! Some of these ages may not be official, or the owner might might not have told the truth about their pet's age.

Dog: 29
Cat:  31
Budgie: 29
Cockatoo: 120
Box turtle: 123
Koi fish: 220
Red Eared Slider turtle: 85
Guinea pig: nearly 15
Rabbit: 16
 

Exotic Amphibian and Reptile Center

In St. Louis City there is an interesting store. The Exotic Amphibian and Reptile Center a.k.a. ExoticARC, stocks a very large variety of reptiles and amphibians, and also has some crabs, arachnids, rodents, and tropical fish.

Before we even entered the ExoticARC, we instantly noticed the two displays in front of the store. One held bearded dragons, and the other held a reticulated python (the world's longest snake.) You can buy one of several reticulated pythons in the store for a couple hundred dollars.

Inside, we saw several more reticulated pythons, and some lizards. We instantly noticed the messiness of the store. It was full of empty, dirty aquariums.

There was a large cage full of baby iguanas, along with a warning that these lizards can be very big, give a nasty bite, and may never be tamed. There was no such warning on an (empty ) baby alligator tank. I was surprised that the price was only about 80 dollars.

There was a glass cage full of tiny plastic containers with hatching ball pythons, corn snakes, king snakes, and milk snakes of various morphs. There must have been hundreds of tiny snakes! Below the snakes there were several baby pac-man frogs, and there was a smaller case with scorpions and tarantulas.

A nearby display housed rattlesnakes and copperheads. They were not for sale!

My mom and I quickly noticed the Halloween Moon Crabs. They were pretty little crabs, with black and orange markings.

Along one wall there were lots of reptiles, especially ball pythons and bearded dragons, but also geckos and small monitors.

A very large (and expensive) Sulcuta tortoise was in a plastic container.

A tiny tank housed tiny Red Eyed Tree-frog froglets.   

I then saw a cage with several rabbits in it. There was no price written on the cage. For some reason I instantly thought of the reticulated pythons.

There were many tanks with fish, including some very beautiful, large ones.

Behind the counter, there were live mice, rats, and hamsters for very cheap (apparently for feeding to large reptiles) but, since they were live, they could also be bought as pets.

At the very back of the store, the was an enormous vivarium which held... (as far as we could see) two small chameleons.  

The ExoticARC store had lots of very interesting animals (many of them relatively rare) at mostly reasonable prices. It is a fun place to look around, even if you don't buy any animals (we didn't.)

My dad said it was better than the reptiles at the zoo!

The Great Escape

Today something incredible happened!

It all started when I noticed that my turtle tank had a leak. I desided to move the hermit crabs into the leaking tank and put the turtles into the other tank.

I asked my brother to watch over the turtles (which were in a small container with out a lid.) He desided that it would be a better idea to put a heavy book over the container (leaving a crack for air.)

At least half on hour later I was shocked to find a turtle in the hallway! I found the other one crawling under my desk!

Some how, the turtles had pushed the book off the top of the container, climbed out, and some how survived falling off my desk!

My desk is nearly 2.5 feet off the ground and it is incredible that they could have survived falling that far with no injuries at all.

The moral off this story: Make sure your pets can never escape! They are better at it than you might think.

The Feeder Fish Experiment or Why I Shall Never Become a Farmer

I decided to do something I have wanted to do for a long time: feed small goldfish and minnows to Yertle and Myrtle. I bought five comet goldfish and five rosy red minnows. They were 13 cents each. I put the fish in a five gallon tank (it used to be for the turtles but I moved them into a ten gallon).

After a short time I put the smallest fish into the turtle tank. Soon the chase was on! We all crowded around to watch. The fish was caught and eaten. I felt sorry for the fish.

Since I didn't expect the fish to live long, I had no filter for the fish tank. In order to aerate the tank, I poked holes in a container, filled it with water, and placed it on the top edge of the tank.  When the water drips into the tank, it mixes air into the water.

That evening I dropped another fish into the turtle tank. I left the room for a minute and when I returned, the fish was gone.

Before this, I had been watching the fish. They each seemed to have a different personality, and I was learning to tell them apart.

The next day my brother found the minnow in the turtle tank. It was unharmed. The minnow had been hiding somewhere in the tank. The turtles ignored it, so I returned the minnow to the fish tank.

Today I fed another minnow. There was not even one lunge at it. The minnow eventually found a hiding place. When I put this minnow where the turtles could see it they still ignored it.

It looks like the fish have taken up a longer residence here than I thought. I have gotten attached to them. I like one red and white goldfish with orange on its long tail best. My brother likes a black and gold fish. I have even gone so far as to give them names!

My Pets

                                       
On New years one of my plans was to buy a bird. I was able to get one that same day! My brother and I had already picked out the name Kiki (named after the bird in the Enid Blyton children's book series). Kiki is a beautiful violet factor budgie. Budgies are often called "parakeets" but the correct term is "budgerigar" or "budgie" for short.
  Kiki was tamed very quickly and loves to perch on my finger, shoulder, or head. So far Kiki has been a wonderful pet.
  Budgies are great pets for people who want a pet that is small, adorable, and easy to care for.

                                                
Yertle and Myrtle are my baby painted turtles.  I think they are the western sub- species. They love to eat. Especially when crickets are on the menu!   They are not afraid of people, having been caught probably the day they hatched. They eat out of my hand or out of a small lid.
  I caught them crossing a bicycle road mostly dried out. Since then they have grown far bigger and will probably outgrow their tank soon.
  Painted turtles can live up to 55 years in the wild and longer in captivity! I hope that they live a long, happy life with me.




I hope to post a lot more pictures soon!