Miss Turtle is the newest “pet” at Pond Doc’s Water Garden Center. She was given to us by a customer who wasn’t at home enough to give her the attention she craves. You heard me right! This turtle is no scare-d-cat. When we arrive in the morning she jumps from her perch and greets us with excitement in her eyes, bobbing in the water, waving her foreclaws at us like she’s saying, “Daddy’s home! Mommy’s home! Time to eat!”

Miss Turtle was raised from a baby in a 10-gallon aquarium where she was pampered throughout her entire life. We’ve never kept a turtle before but the thought of it intrigued us so we made a home for her in one of the aquariums of the store so that she can get all the attention she wants and more! She now lives in a larger aquarium where she gets treated like royalty. The only thing she doesn’t have is a mate.

Miss Turtle is a Painted Turtle. We know that because she bears the beautiful colors of the Painted Turtle such as yellow-striped head and red highlights in her shell. I didn’t know how to properly care for Miss Turtle so I researched the species and found out a few interested things about them.

Painted turtles are, by nature, shy and reclusive, though you’d never prove it by the silly antics Miss Turtle displays when she’s trying to get your attention. They do, however, love other Painted Turtles and are often seen in the wild stacked up on each other vying for the optimal sunning spot.

That’s in the wild. I wonder if Miss Turtle would care for a companion. She’s over 10 years old now and has never known another Painted Turtle. We all get set in our ways and another (especially younger) turtle in her home might just aggravate instead of entertain her. Then again, she could be quite lonely!

There’s many things that affect turtles who are in the wild that don’t affect turtles brought up in a protected environment. Wild painted turtles are lucky to reach his ripe old age of 10. Because Miss Turtle is indoors she may reach 20 or 25 years of age. Predators make it tough for wild turtles to even make it to maturity. Baby Painted Turtles are eaten by just about any and all kinds of wild animals. Mature turtles are favorite meals for many types of animals including otters, coyotes, alligators and — humans. I’ve heard they taste like chickens though, after knowing Miss Turtle, I won’t ever know for sure.

A mature wild Painted Turtle will eat almost anything he can put in his mouth — dead or alive — animal or vegetable! Live food for the turtle comes from his natural environment and those are snails, insects, dragonfly larvae, leeches, tadpoles, shrimp, crayfish and even small fish. They do, however, prefer dead “meat” as opposed to live perhaps I imagine because it’s easier to catch. This makes it less of a concern that he’ll eat our pet koi and goldfish in the pond. He likes veggies too. In the wild he will eat duckweed, algae and almost any kind of water plant. Our Miss Turtle’s diet is a little more refined. She came to our store equipped with a jar of commercial turtle food and advice to give her raw scraps every now and then. She likes the turtle food okay but what she really likes is raw meat. Lamb is her very favorite! When we prepare meat at home we trim off the fat and cut the leaner scraps into bite-sized pieces for Miss Turtle. She swallows and can’t chew her food so bite sized pieces are best. I read where captive turtles love scraps of freshwater fish also and I’ve since learned that fish would be safer for her to eat than the meat scraps we’ve been giving her. Though she can accidentally latch on to a finger when it’s presented to her she does not bite when we feed her. When she doesn’t get meat scraps Miss Turtle has taken a fancy to floating koi food which, I understand, is an excellent source of nutrition for her.

The Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta) can be found from Southern Canada to Northern Mexico and all over the US. There are four sub-species of the Painted Turtle — Eastern, Southern, Midland and Western — but I can’t figure out which one of them Miss Turtle is. Male Painted Turtles are generally smaller than females, have elongated foreclaws and long, thick tails. The female’s tail is shorter and thinner. Without other turtles with which to compare her I had no way of knowing whether Miss Turtle was a he-turtle or a she-turtle until I was visited recently by a friend from Connecticut who is crazy about turtles. She informed me that our turtle formally known as “Sir Turtle” was indeed a female.

The mating “dance”, as they call it, of the Painted Turtle sounds like something out of a romance novel. It’s both graceful and gentle. The male will swim past the female and turn to face her. With trembling foreclaws he gently strokes her head and neck — and then, if she falls for his charms, they do the wild thing. This occurs each year between March and June, depending on their location. Every aspect of the Painted Turtle’s metabolism is controlled by the temperature which is also true in koi and goldfish.

A Painted Turtle will hibernate when the weather gets cold. In Northern climates (such as Canada and Northern US) he may sleep for 4 to 5 months burrowed in the muddy bottom of a shallow slow-moving brook. In cold weather his need for oxygen is less and he’s able to absorb oxygen through his skin so he doesn’t need to come up for air until warmer waters wake him up. In some warmer climates he may never go into hibernation. This natural hibernation does not affect Miss Turtle, however, because she is kept indoors in a temperature-controlled environment.

A Painted Turtle who is raised in a pond outside will go through hibernation if the weather turns cold. He will be exposed to elements like predators, diseases and environmental changes that an indoor turtle may not ever experience. We cannot expect a turtle like Miss Turtle to make it in that harsh environment after being pampered all her life so she will need to be kept indoors for the rest of his life. People make the mistake of releasing “sick” turtles to the elements outside thinking that being returned to their native habitat will promote natural healing. This is simply not true and would probably be the death of them.

Miss Turtle has convinced me that turtles are not “just another pond creature”. They have personality and can be very entertaining. The staff at the store are continually telling Miss Turtle stories and it’s almost a fight over who’s going to feed Miss Turtle when we bring in scraps for her. The fun experiences with our new pet doesn’t stop with us. Our very serious-minded store kitty, Jello, takes great pleasure with sitting on top of Miss Turtle’s aquarium and watching her. Rascal, the spunkiest of our two store kitties, has his own story to tell.

Rascal had to be part of the action the moment Miss Turtle arrived. I began remodeling the aquarium to accommodate her. Rascal, curious by nature, was on top of the aquarium sticking a paw in every now and then to try and touch the odd new creature. Meanwhile Miss Turtle was busy checking out her new home, wallowing in the rocks on the bottom and totally ignoring Rascal. I guess Rascal was not getting a close enough view and stuck his whole arm into the tank. With a big splash Rascal fell head-first into the tank drenching me and the floor around me. I thought Rascal would jump out quickly but instead he clung to the side of the tank, his bottom half in the water, his nappy, wet face grinning up at me. He was enjoying the fact that he was inside the tank with the turtle! I had to pull him out of there before Miss Turtle decided to have a piece of his tail or something worse.

Now Rascal has to share in everything Miss Turtle does. He’s always by our side when we feed his turtle friend, begging for a bite of Miss Turtle’s meat scraps. He can’t fit into the tank now that we’ve replaced the top but I have no doubt that when we do take it off he’ll be there for a chance to go swimming again.

Painted turtles need sunshine too and will get a type of shell disease if their shells are not allowed to dry. This is where we were wrong in our original setup of Miss Turtle’s tank. We’ve lowered the water in the tank to accommodate a dry rock where Miss Turtle can bask and have replaced the light in the aquarium hood with one that is specially designed for plants. We know Miss Turtle is happy. Now we must insure that Miss Turtle stays healthy.