Welcome Peacabo's and HydeNseek's home. These
beauties are Ornate Wood Turtles (Rhinoclemmy pulcherrima manni) which are
native to Central America. These turtles have bright 'eye spots' on
their carapace with patterns of red stripes on their heads and necks.
Here we have Peacabo (female) and HydeNseek (male) in their indoor
habitat. A 75 gallon terrarium. They are both approximately 3
years of age, which is only a good guess.
Peacabo and
HydeNseek
Peacabo and
HydeNseek
September, 2005
CA Woods do not hibernate so special care needs to
be given to keep them warm during our winter months. A basking lamp,
and full spectrum fluorescent reptile light and an undertank heating pad
is used to simulate a consistent year round climate. They love
to burrow in the substrate (fir bark) and are very adept at digging and
flipping the substrate over their bodies until they're completely covered.
They do this as a means of body temperature control, to hide and to rest.
Peacabo has laid several clutches of eggs which
has produced a hatchling on February 17, 2010! We have
named her, SitNSpin.
HydeNseek
HydeNseek
Central American Ornate Woods are semi-aquatic but primarily terrestrial
preferring woodlands near water. Peacabo and HydeNseek are
taken outside almost daily to explore our yard and absorb the beneficial
rays of the sun. Males of this species are smaller than the females
and somewhat less aggressive
Peacabo and Speedy
Peacabo and Speedy
They're not called Wood turtles for nothing! They
had a great time exploring this wood pile and as you can see, their
carapace design and coloring helps them to blend into this environment.
They are very good climbers!
Speedy is my
grandson's turtle and Peacabo's first mate. Turtles have a very
interesting mating ritual where the male will bob his head up and down
rapidly in the female's face until he gets a reaction. That reaction
usually is in the form of chasing, shell nipping and biting which appears
to be very aggressive. However it only entices the male to complete
the task at hand and he did, quite nicely on numerous occasions. We
are hoping that Peacabo will be laying her first clutch of eggs soon.
RES Hatchlings
(Believe it or not there are three in there)
Snitch, Sneaker and Timiakau (RIP)
Close up of
hatching enjoying a 'shower.' Hatchings were born early August, 2005.
Here we have an empty 30 gallon tank....no, not really,
there are three Red Eared Slider Hatchings (Trachemys
scripta elegans) in there. The close up on
the right shows one of the little guys. Red Eared Slider's (RES) are
mainly aquatic as hatchlings then become more terrestrial with maturity. These are
the species of turtles we saw commonly sold in stores until a ban was put
on selling hatchlings in the 1970's. Sold in little plastic bowls
with a palm tree, most died from improper care. Those environments
were too small, had no heating, lighting or water filtration and the care
instructions weren't adequate. Most people didn't know that these
darling hatchlings could grow up to 12 inches in length and if properly
cared for, had a life span of 70 years. RES are native to the United
States.
