I have a number of red ear slider turtles that are feed trained. They hear the 4 wheeler coming and their head pops up and they swim toward me. I throw feed their way when I see them. Every year have babies in my two small sediment and forage ponds. The snappers know what feed is but they seem to be more wary and come and go from the pond so are not regulars like the red ears are.
I also have had a problem with them stopping up my overflow pipe from the sediment pond that goes into my main pond. Had a huge rain event and noticed the water flowing over the emergency but not much coming out the pipe. Figured some debris in it so stuck my hand down there to clear it (I would NEVER do this in my main pond overflow but there is very little height differential between the sediment and main pond so little risk of getting "sucked in"). Felt like a rock in there. Weird. Wrenched around on it with my hand for a while and felt like two rocks. Then I felt something move. That was the end of the hand operation. Got a bar and pried around and dug one 6 or 8" turtle out. Neck hanging out and looked dead. Threw it on the dam between ponds. Still very slow water flow. Dug another bigger turtle out, neck hanging out and looking dead. Threw him on the dam and he promptly came to and crawled briskly into the main pond. Then a few minutes later the first turtle came alive and crawled into the water.
Reminds me, I was going to get a bar guard made for that pipe. Fortunately that pond has a very large emergency rock covered overflow that goes into the main pond so even if the pipe clogs up it is not much of a big deal.
Last edited by snrub; 07/15/17 10:39 PM.
