Terrapin Talk #4 – Gus & Lady

I was handed the task of taking care of two inquisitive tiny Terrapins when I was a young youth, I took them in with excitement as I watched their two shells, no larger than fifty pence pieces, bobbing and diving around their tanks. 14 years later, yes that number was indeed fourteen, they are both still happy and healthy living in my living room in two separate tanks basking under their new heat lamps and munching down vegetables enjoying their best lives possible. Gus and Lady are as large a part of my life as anything else, they have been present in my life since I was in school going through some shit times and have been here for every pivotal moment as an adult (my wedding, the fire, three moves and countless jobs).Without them splashing away in the morning, I think my day would feel off, they are a huge part of my family and will leave a deep hole in my life when they pass.

I wanted to take the final piece in this limited series of blogs to discuss two animals once more in my life that both mean so much to my family, Gus and Lady express different personalities and have always been challenging in their own ways to care for as long as I have known them. Lady can be a disaster to keep contained for her own safety, her many escape attempts have given me sleepless nights in the past and still as recently as this week she has taken to climbing out of the basking area almost plummeting to the ground. Gus on the flipside of the shell has never been a brave boy, he is much more of natural terrapin in that sense, often times Tanya or I will enter the room and Gus will burst into a panicked sprint back into the water to escape what he thinks is a predator coming for him as he sunbaths under his warm lights. They are unique, both visually and characteristically, I want to give them the time they deserve to highlight how special these two animals are to me.

Gus

When I received Gus and Lady I had absolutely no idea about their sex, it was not until Gus reached maturity that It became shockingly plain that he was indeed a young male terrapin, and that Lady was becoming increasingly frustrated with his antiques in trying courtship. For their own safety after a couple of nasty fights and borderline dangerous bites from both, they had to be placed apart into separate tanks and still to this day the remain. Placed in corners of the room with the ability to hear, see and smell everyone else moving around they are now more than happy to sit and watch Tanya and I talk as they drink in the warmth from their basking lights in the evening.

Gus takes much of his behaviours from natural instincts, he will dig and explore the foliage and logs in his tank, upturning rocks and chasing falling debris that he has knocked loose. During the evenings he will clamber with long clanking nails onto the dock we have built for him to bask under the lights, despite his nervous disposition, since we changed the basking set-up recently, he has been spending significantly more time out of the water which is incredibly beautiful to see given his flight mentality. Throughout his life Gus has been the more difficult of the two to keep happy and healthy, his reluctance for so long to come out of the water, especially in the cold of winter, to bask and get some healthy UV rays onto his little scaley skin. Mercifully Gus has turned a corner long ago with his fear now only popping up on the odd unfortunate occasion, the boy will be all right.

Lady

Now onto the Lady of the house, I do not mean Tanya, I mean the queen of our strangely assembled hive. Lady shows almost zero signs of natural terrapin behaviour, her curiosity and bravery in the face of larger “threats” goes against absolutely everything I would expect from a vulnerable animal. Climbing out of her tank on multiple, and I do mean multiple, occasions Lady has shown that she is not only not afraid of being caught but also not phased by falling what has been some absolutely terrifying heights for a small, shelled creature like herself. I can remember a time when the terrapins lived in Tanya’s Mums home during our time traveling across Europe, Tanya got a phone call from her Mum panicking that she cannot find Lady in her tank. What had happened was that somehow this armoured explorer had escaped and disappeared into the furniture, Tanya’s Mum found her two days later, the phone rang, and I fully prepared myself to hear that “I found Lady, she’s dead.” When I heard that she was alive and simply had been chilling out in the dark cool areas of a large old wardrobe, I was absolutely stunned with disbelief that Lady was going for excursions without fail. What did she see when she was exploring and how many times did Lady scuttle away from Tanya’s Mum seeking her out while stomping around her, Lady is an adventurous soul and I love her for it.

Catching up to modern day and Lady is still doing her best to escape the safety and warmth of her watery floating dock and aquarium, almost every two to three days either Tanya or myself will have to sprint to her tank to catch her as she has managed to climb above her basking dock and almost fell to the floor below. Her brave attitude and curious little face melt my heart still almost 14 years later, lying on the floor near her tank and talking to her as she bobs her head and switches her gaze from eye to eye has given me many unpaid therapy sessions over the years. Without a doubt some of the most special days of my life have been spent with these animals and I am eternally grateful that they entered my life for the long haul.

Species Trouble

I will once again give some time to discuss the species of Terrapins in general in an effort to perhaps dissuade you or anyone you may know from buying these animals as pets. Terrapins, all complicated reptiles in fact, are not ideal pets to have in your home. They need advanced set-ups some of which If adequately assembled can run into the thousands of pounds, animals such as Terrapins are not “starter pets” nor are they something you can put in some water and forget about. Seeing set ups online of two inches of water and a log floating in that puddle excuse of an aquarium feels me with immense sadness, these are animals that need us, their humans, to protect them and give them the efforts they require if we choose to take them into our homes. Animal neglect is never acceptable, regardless of your circumstances, if you cannot correctly/safely care for your animals they need to be given to someone who can. The same applies with reptiles, amphibians, rodents, varmints, insects, cats, or dogs.

Thankfully the sale of Terrapins has taken a significant dip in the UK and Yellow-bellied sliders are now mercifully not bred in anywhere near the same volumes that they once had been, they are an invasive species and when released into the wild without concern for them or the environment these little creatures can devastate the local animal populations. Remember all of this when you next hear someone mention turtles, terrapins, or anything remotely exotic that animals are not made for cages or becoming accessories to personalities. Rescue and Adopt, Never shop. Thank you for once again sticking through my rants and I hope you have an amazing day.