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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
 Posted - 06/26/2007 : 17:11:36
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We were wrong!
A couple of years ago, we took in a soon to be orphaned Red-Eared Slider. He had outgrown his welcome with his previous owners, and we had the room for another animale because our rats had, not long before, passed over to the other side...
That meant buying a new larger tank and all sorts of aquatic turtle paraphernalia (filter, heat lamp, basking rock etc.) so that our turtle would be a happy turtle.
His name was Stoney when we got him and he was already about four or five inches round. He is much bigger now. Probably six or seven inches round by my reckoning.
It had never occurred to us that Stoney might possibly be a female. I mean, I wondered from time to time how the previous owners had sexed him but I never questioned their findings.
Until today, that is, when a white inch long oval object mysteriously appeared on the floor of his tank.
Stoney is a chick!
I did a bit of research to see how often it happens that a female slider lays an egg without “encouragement” from a male companion. Yes indeed, it happens from time to time. It happened today.
I don't think much will change around here though, aquatic turtles being rather solitary creatures and really, not overly huggable. I mean, they are fun to look at and watch but you don't want to move a finger in front of their face or try to pet one. They will indeed bite the hand that feeds them. And yet, Stoney follows us. She moves from one side of the tank to the other as we move, watching us, probably in the hope that food will soon follow, or she is just so freaking nearsighted that she thinks she is looking at a possible dinner. I dunno.
Anyhow, the egg is still in the tank. It can't be fertile so I will take it out in a while. Worry about salmonella, a common problem that doesn't seem to bother turtles, but can make a turtle owner good and sick, will probably keep me from cooking the egg up and eating it…you know…just to see what it tastes like. I dunno…
Our biggest problem now will be to remember to call him a her…
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Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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JEROME DA GNOME
BANNED
2418 Posts |
 Posted - 06/26/2007 : 17:23:03 [Permalink]
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You could boil the egg for a snack.
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What a man believes upon grossly insufficient evidence is an index into his desires -- desires of which he himself is often unconscious. If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way. - Bertrand Russell |
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We were wrong!
