This is a good article on breeding red eared slider turtles... and as we have a lovely male slider called Shelton in our classroom, it caught my attention.
Nearly all our past animal care and vet nursing classes will have stories to tell of how he moves things round his tank, plays suggestively with his water filter, or his ping pong ball, and that he needs his shell scrubbed regularly.
We got Shelton about 8 years ago from one of our technicians whose sons had originally owned him from a hatchling... in fact one of the sons is now back as a father of two studying at polytech ; I presume he has been shown Shelton again :)
Although he lives in a large tank, we have never felt the urge to get him a female companion, but reading this makes me wonder why! He gets to lie under his UV basking lamp, and for some enrichment, regular walks around the classroom, and out on the lawns. Once we took him on television as the visiting star of a local pet programme ... he charmed everyone by racing off across the carpet at the end; people came from all over the studio to meet him.
Love to hear some "Shelton" memories - if you are a past student reading this on blogger or facebook, do share some:)
