No, not a diamondback rattlesnake! A diamondback terrapin–one of the best little turtles in the world. Tame, friendly, lots of personality: well, sure, all turtles are wonderful. But these are kind of hard to get, and that makes them special.
In my turtle tank, as a boy, I had my diamondback (very similar to the one in the video), a painted turtle, a small snapping turtle, and a tiny musk turtle the size of a nickel. I always fed them all by hand, and they liked that.
One night I left their tank outside and it overflowed during an unexpected rainstorm–and all my turtles were gone.
Would you believe it? Every single one of them made its way back. Snappers are pretty good on land, and it took mine two weeks to come home: he must have wandered very far afield. But they all came home. Who would’ve thought it?
Wow! That’s really fantastic! Even turtles swept away in a storm would find their way home. They must have loved their home 🙂
I fed them like royalty.
My cat IS royalty, just ask her. 🙂
First, I’m glad you clarified the meaning of Diamondback. In these parts, most Diamondback stories involve a shovel, maybe some all too real excitement. 🙂
That is a cute little feller and very enthusiastic about its food. The return of the prodigal turtles is pretty amazing as well. There’s a lot more of God in these beasts than people give them credit for. He made them durned clever.
I had a feeling that headline would catch your eye.
It had me running for my trusty snake shovel. 🙂
Truly an amazing story. As much as I am annoyed by people and their cell phones, I do wish I had one as a kid to record some of those amazing moments that I have now forgotten. Kudos to the Royal Turtle Feeder.
You should always feed your turtles by hand. Then they bond to you. Even my painted turtle got to be tame and friendly that way–and they’re supposed to be skittish.