I'm in western NC, zone 7A. It's been in the high-80s low-90s.

A snapping turtle has made himself at home in my goldfish pond for the last several years, and this year I began explicitly feeding him because (a) I wanted to protect my fish and (b) turtles are cool. He was pretty friendly, coming up to me and following me around.

Yesterday he didn't come up to eat, and again no show today.

It feels too late for them to be mating, and too early for hibernation. Is this normal behavior, though?

“I’m flying Jack!”

Lenny is about 6 years old, and I swear I’ve done calcium, the UV lights, the proper diet and all the things I read about prior to getting him. I live in Central Europe, so he’s really only outside for about half of the year at most. The other half he’s in the garage with what I think is appropriate lighting and heating. I’m pretty distraught about the extent of the bumpiness of his shell and I don’t know why it’s happened. The only thing I can think of is humidity, because his enclosure idiots is probably pretty dry.

So two questions:

How bad is his shell? Anything I can do differently going forward?

Thanks so much tortoise people!

Hi I’m possibly taking a turtle in from someone and they think it’s a few years old and a Ouachita Map Turtle… any ideas? Thanks!

I’m located in Illinois.