I believe all of this, having a friend with a sulcata. I don’t think anything likes snuggling up in fleece blankets as much as her boy Marvin does.
The only thing is, he has a vendetta against Crocs (the shoes). Don’t wear them in his house if you value your toes.
Sighted yesterday in the front yard.
They’re very common on my property, but not as frequently seen as 20+ years ago. We have to be very careful mowing, and burning tree limbs.
If anyone wants some fun turtle time on YouTube, check out Garden State Tortoise, especially their rescue box turtle, Rockalina.
The runner Yared Nuguse (bronze medalist in the Olympics at the 1500m) is an enthusiastic tortoise-keeper. He even posted a video about how he gets his tortoise ready for hibernation:
Squee! That is LITTLE!
I love Garden State Tortoise’s channel. I think that’s how my niece ended up with a Hermann’s Tortoise. They’re also how I found Toad Ranch who made my baby Marty’s (Bearded Dragon) custom sized enclosure.
This is how he summons housekeeping services when he has pooped.
So, I have an after-the-fact turtle question.
A week ago I stopped for an Eastern box turtle in the road (I always stop and move them the rest of the way off the road in the direction they are headed).
This one, however, may have been clipped by a car. It had a narrow 1” piece of shell broken off at the base of his neck, and one of his front feet was bloody and torn at the toes (but not higher up the leg).
There is only one wildlife rescue within driving distance and they only take mammals that are brought in by wildlife agents or animal control. (They told me to put a fledgling bird with a broken leg out in the underbrush and let nature take its course. 
) So I knew they wouldn’t help.
The best I could do for this turtle was to drive him to my large wooded property far from the road and hope he could survive his injuries. He disappeared in minutes. But my dad then told me that if a piece of the shell is removed, they don’t survive.
What say the experts? I would hate to think I condemned him to a slow, painful death.
A friend of mine was checking his cattle the other day and sent me this. They got a ton of rain last week and he says even the turtles are looking for drier ground 
I think your dad is wrong. Turtles can survive wounds. If you didn’t see any blood, I think it’ll be OK.
Here’s what AI says:
A turtle can potentially survive with a missing piece of shell, but it depends on the extent of the damage and the turtle’s overall health. While a turtle’s shell is an integral part of its body, it can heal from injuries, especially if the damage is not too severe
How did I miss this thread until now?
I have two sliders that I got on a whim 30 plus years ago. I’m beginning to think that they will outlive me.
Hive mind reply: A few years ago I rescued a turtle with a damaged shell on a bridge over a river. When I called the rescue I thought he was a basic box turtle. My husband was on dialysis and could not risk having a turtle that might carry salmonella in the house. While driving to the rescue about an hour away he stuck his head out enough that I thought me might be a red slider. I know enough about turtles to be dangerous. So I changed his sign-in to red slider. In my part of PA they are invasive species. They were very annoyed with me but took him. They will not be able to release him since he is non-native. I did not know they were non-native.
I have run across 2 red sliders at the farm I work at. One while bringing in horses, one while mowing. What am I supposed to do with these non-native species? Collect them to be pets? Pretend I don’t know they are non-native?
To make things more complicated there are native very tiny bog turtles who are threatened in the area. Finding them will halt construction for both private properties and major road revamps.
In the last 4 years I have worked here I have run across 2 red eared sliders in the last 30 days. None before that.
They’re probably released pets. I’d call your local rescue and ask them. They can cause a lot of damage to native species.
They are all over around here. These are probably offspring of pets. It is unlikely any of the three I have handled were pets at any point.
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