Red Eared Slider Up For Adoption

Once again, as in many past years, I had planned on having a table or two at the annual Long Island Herpetological Society show. Besides having some animals for sale and others for an educational display, I also planned on having some herps for adoption. When Tropical Storm Sandy hit us, the show was cancelled soon after, and my plans to buy some Bearded Dragons to sell at the show fell through (and man was it a great offer I had to pass up).
 
In addition, as is usual with me, I decided to make a good effort at finding unwanted herps that could be put up for adoption at the show. I started looking about 2 or 3 weeks before the scheduled date. While the cancellation of the show, due to the storm, had me turn down that excellent offer on about 15 baby bearded dragons that I would have offered for sale - the approach of the storm in no way slowed down my search for adoptable herps. In fact, even the storm itself did not keep me from that goal.  
 
Did I find anything, sure I did. I came up with an ad on Craig's List or Backpage about someone who was desperate to find a good home for a Red Eared Slider. What else could it have been - at least it was not a Green Iguana. I called them, it was a couple who lived on the upper west side in Manhattan. They explained they were leaving to go work in East Africa for at least several months and had no one to care for the turtle in that time and apparently there had been only one other person who had showed interest; he had failed to get back to them as promised. They were leaving on the Thursday, after Sandy. As you may recall the storm hit on a Monday night and lasted through at least half of Tuesday. As I remember it, it lasted a bit longer. The area was a mess. Yet, I had agreed to go pick up the turtle on Wednesday if the roads were passable. That had been agreed upon on Sunday or Monday (that would have been early on Monday before Sandy hit hard). After seeing much of my home's roof blow off (I had taken the dogs out and found shingles all over my yard and then looked up to find that indeed they were from my house and I watched many more get blown off) and some other damage to our house, and hearing about all the other damage, and the flooding of the tunnels to NYC, I was not much in the mood to try to drive into Manhattan. I expected heavy traffic and long delays getting there but I had promised and they had no one else who would take it and were leaving the next day for Africa!
 
I braved the roads and to my surprise there was little, if any, traffic on my way to Morning Side Heights / Harlem through Nassau and a bit of Queens, over the Throggs' Neck Bridge, across the Bronx on the Cross Bronx Expressway and into Manhattan. I even found parking just one door away from their apartment building. The couple was very nice. They told me a brief history of the turtle - they had it for years since it was small. It is not small now. They also told me that he (the guy not the turtle) was a doctor and she (the gal not the turtle) was an aid worker, both going to do good things for folks on the Dark Continent. Sorry but I forget their names, I am terrible that way. They showed me the turtle, and started to empty the water out of its tank. The tank was a 30 long but had a big crack in it that had been sealed with silicone and actually held water regardless of the crack. It came with a couple of filters and lighting and turtle food and, of course, with the turtle.
 


Yes, these are all pics of the actual turtle up for adoption.
All should be clickable images, click to enlarge.

The turtle, as you already know, is a Red Eared Slider. It is most definitely female, unless she/he is an incredible freak of nature that resembles the female of the species but is really a male in disguise. Trust me on this one, it is a gal turtle. It is an almost fully grown adult, its carapace is about 8" long. It has good body weight, probably meaning two things - it was well fed (and still is being fed well) and it is probably healthy. She had been fed mostly turtle pellets. Since I have had her, she has been feeding on aquatic turtle pellets and goldfish. After I started feeding her some goldfish, she has been kind of slacking off on the turtle pellets but does still eat some that I offer her. She has no apparent health issues that I have noticed. She was shedding scutes on her carapace when I got her - either due to a normal shed due to growth, or possibly due to a health issue but I think the former. All but one or two of the surface scutes have come off revealing an apparently strong new scute where each of the old surface ones had been before. Her shell is nice and hard as it should be. She is pretty active. Right now I have her in a temporary enclosure, a plastic concrete mixing trough (I threw out the cracked tank that I got with her) but she could use a larger abode, at least a 50 gallon aquarium sized tank. 
 
If you are an experienced herp keeper, who knows the requirements for keeping and maintaining a healthy basking water turtle, such as this Red Eared Slider, then feel free to contact me via email if you are interested in adopting her. Bear a couple of things in mind. This is an adoption not a turtle, plus tank, plus accessories, plus food giveaway. I am offering the turtle and nothing else. The accessories I got will probably wind up in the LIHS auction in June. Also, keep in mind, you must be a responsible adult to adopt this from me. I do not make adoptions of animals to minors. In order to adopt it, you must convince me that you know how to care for turtles prior to getting it from me. If you are adopting this as a pet for a child, bear in mind, you are the person responsible for the care of the turtle and turtles can live a very long time, like 50 years; also bear in mind that turtles can bite and this one definitely tries to bite but luckily I still have all my finger tips.
 
Also note, there is not an adoption fee but I would, as I always do, ask for a donation if you take her. While a donation is not mandatory, I highly recommend at least $10; all of which will go to the LIHS.
 
To contact me click on the link, near the upper right hand corner on this page, to view my complete profile (or you can just click on it here). In that profile is an "Contact Me" section with an email link to me.
 
All the best,
Glenn  B