Painter Returns

This afternoon I heard Cullen barking with his “I have a snake or something unusual: treeing bark. It was a painted turtle who had left our pond and was trapped against the dog fence. I brought the turtle inside and offered her (I think) a large night crawler. When Eric and Kathryn got home I showed them the turtle – which I believe is the correct size to be our previous Painted Turtle, Painter. She looked healthy and we decided to return her to the pond.

A close up of Painter.
Painter returning to our pond.

The Back Story about Painter.

Last week Barb and Joe found a Eastern Painted Turtle hatch ling – probably only 2-3 days old.   He was tiny and likely destined as a food source.  They asked Eric to raise the turtle until he was a little older and had a better chance at survival.  Eric named the turtle Painter and after a copy of fretful days he/she has started to eat.  Painter ignored the fruit: blueberries and strawberries but took tiny bites of soaked dog food and a bite of an orange.  Yesterday while Kathryn was working home alone she said she could hear the faintest sound of smacking and looked to see Painter eating a mouthful of dog food.

In the picture above Painter is in ‘basking’ mode.  At night Painter hides under the vegetation. May 16th, 2008

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Painter, the baby painted turtle, was confined to a large tub in the basement where he happily dug into the mud and hibernated until this past week.  The mud in his tub dried up and he awoke to investigate the problem.  After re-hydrating his ‘pond’ and covering him with a damp cloth Painter dug in somewhat and went back to his snooze.  We will continue to monitor his slumber and plan for his move to warmer floors within the house. February 11th, 2009 |

Painter

Our painted turtle, Painter, has quite an appetite and has been visibly growing.  He prefers fish worms to almost all other food and will eat them from a hand if you move slow and dangle the fish worm where he can see it.  A measure of his growth is evident in the wide light gray areas between the scutes on his carapace.

July 1st, 2009