Today, i was reading calsifer's blog regarding saving the lifes of red terrrapins. I realised that i seldom blog about my own pair of red eared sliders.
I had mine for over ten years. Both are females, that i named Ah-bob and lizzie. I used to have a third one but he died 3 years ago, his name was xiao fei. Xiao fei was our favourite terrapin, fat and round and very tame. Unfortunately, he grew a tumour that we can never removed. We spent $200 vet treatment but xiao fei never recovered.
Back to Ah bob and lizzie, i had ah bob given to me by my third uncle from my mum's side. Here is how ah-bob entered our life:
One fine day, we went to third uncle's house and seeing his terrapins that we find(we were only primary school at that time) very cute, mum asked if we could bring his terrapins to play before returning the pair to uncle. So we brought that pair home. Then dad stiked 4-D and suddenly third uncle called to say his daughter wanted her terrapins back. When third uncle was at our home to bring home his own pair, he also brought a third terrapin to give it to us. This is Ah-bob.
Lizzie was bought from at B453 AMK market. Xiaofei was bought from another AMK (B339) market.
This is how we had three terrapins. Xiaofei stayed with us for 6 to 7 years.
Most people buy baby terrapins because they are cute but most do not keep their terrapins when it become bigger. In fact, the bigger they are, they also become more smelty and dirtier. I never thought of dumping them into the reservoirs. In calsifer's blog, that person appealing for help was asking this qn:
Do U have relevant informations on how to release them safely back into the sea or reservoirs as they are not the local species here…. ? or
It is totally impossible to send home bred terrapins back into the wild. They can hardly survive in the water as a matter of fact. Most can actually drowned if they cannot find any rock to rest. And there is also the problem of finding food. It is logical to think this way - at home, they never need to hunt for food, in the wild, do u think they can learn to hunt. Maybe yes..maybe no. Yes is the terrapins are big enough. No is where too many terrapins are abandoned at the place. And certainly no terrapins can survive in the sea esp when the water is salted.
i do not know if my own pairs are luckier than those other 'brothers' as i had keep them in baby bathtub - ah bob in baby tub while lizzie in a red round container. That is the best i can do to keep them in our home. I think ah-bob is 12 years or more.... i had forgotten their real ages as times passes.
So far, none of my cats evern disturb my terrapins. The cats will stare at them but never put their claws at them. I always tell my cats that ah bob and lizzie are their elder 'jie jie' although they are of different species. I tried moving ah-bob close to DD once and DD ran away. Hmm..i do not think DD is afraid of bob. DD is never afraid of strange 'UFOs' in our house. That fearless cat is only scared of door bell and strangers.
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