Canadutch
This past weekend Xander and I brought a new addition into our home. Before anyone says anything, YES I KNOW Xander made me promise no more turtles until we get back from Canada. Since making that promise I have talked our nice neighbours into turtle-sitting for us while we are away, so holiday accommodations are not an issue! LOOPHOLE!
This is Sydney, our new 3 Striped Mud Turtle. I named her after the area I come from back in Canada.
She is 1 month old and as you can see she’s still very tiny but she’s active and eating which is a great sign for a hatchling of her size.
Cute huh?
We got her from a really great guy in Utrecht who breeds mud and musk turtles. We had initially planned on getting two but when we were there we saw his Loggerhead Musk hatchlings and even Xander fell in love with them. All of his hatchlings were already reserved so he put us onto another breeder who I contacted and has one that just hatched this weekend. So we can pick him/her up in a few weeks!
The great thing about Sydney, and the loggerhead musk that will be her tank-mate is that they stay much smaller than the other turtles I have. The largest of my turtles will be anywhere between 9 and 12 inches in length when they are full grown. These two will be anywhere between 3-5 inches full grown. They stay small, are very hardy and easy to keep.
These particular breeds of turtle (the 3 Striped Mud / Loggerhead Musk) are quite rare in this part of Europe, so I’m lucky to be getting them… and after speaking at some length with the breeder I may even give breeding them a go myself when they reach the proper size and maturity. Not to each other of course, as they are different species, but with other turtles of the same species owned by other people in the country. I think that’s pretty cool.
This will give you an idea of just how small Sydney is at the moment. Her current enclosure is a 60x30x30cm tank (a 15 gallon tank). Look how small she is inside it, can you find her?
mum will not let me but i want one ane sugestions on making my mum let me?
All your turtles are cute but this one is the cutest so far (at least I think so). Hmm. Makes me want to have a turtle in the future. Hubby wants a big dog and I don’t. We both don’t like cats. Fish die too easily and are so boring. Will bring up the turtle issue with him. What’s a good turtle to start with? We will need the smallest (very little space in our apartment) and easiest to take care of (no experience). Thanks!
Well that’s the good things about turtles like Sydney (and other Mud/Musk turtles). They grow to be anywhere between 3-6 inches depending on if they are male or female (females tend to be slightly larger).
You could keep one mud/musk turtle in a 20 or 30 gallon tank. That’s what’s great about them. My two slider turtles are in a 95g (360 liter) tank with a massive filter. That’s a lot more high maintenance than what the mud/musk turtles require.
They are also very hardy and are great for beginners :)
Very cute! I think we’d love to have some turtles ourselves, but I’d want to be sure that we had a good tank and we just don’t have the money for anything good right now.
I’m thinking in the future it might be a great thing though!