Just born

I thought I've seen the smallest of the smallest turtlelets. I stand corrected. These babies were less than one day old and just barely larger than a penny. Their shells were still soft! Total cute overload! My co-worker lives near a large pond and had seen turtles lay eggs on his lawn. So he dug them up and put them in a tank. After a month, they finally hatched. So far four have hatched. He has more eggs and there are more nests in his lawn. It is so tempting to adopt these babies but I feel bad. They should be in the wild doing turtle fun things...not stuck in a tank with one lousy rock, heat lamp, and eating turtle pellets. When they were brought into the office, they were left right next to my desk. A lot of work time was wasted by me staring at them and or holding them. Each time they would roll accidentally on their backs, I would have to help them. Some would just give up once on their backs and stop flailing their legs. So sad.

We made them a little pond out of the bottom of a paper cup. We even gave them a ramp to get out of the pool. Each time they would doze off, I'd panic and think they were dead. So I'd give them a nudge and look for signs of life. Lots of napping went on and lots of mini heart attacks were had.

Here's are the happy four and the remains of one of their eggs.