Jacques, the Eastern Mud Turtle

[Moozillion]

Jacques came to live with us in the late autumn of 2015. She was a tiny little thing who had been rescued out of the street by a boy in middle school who brought her to his science teacher. The teacher is my neighbor, who then gave her to us.
At first she would hide ALL the time. She would never let us see her eat and never let us see her move from 1 hiding place to another. All of which is EXCELLENT survival maneuvers for a tiny critter who is regarded as a high quality protein source by almost any animal out there!!!

 

[Moozillion]

After only a week, she was comfortable enough to come out and about while we were watching her!!! She was so small that she had to climb the plastic plants to reach the surface of the water; but I made SURE she had LOTS of "furniture" to climb easily. She's SOOOO cute that even her baby turtle poops were cute!!!!!

 

[Moozillion]

Getting bigger: Now she can stand on the sand and reach the surface if she REEEEEEALLY stretches!

 

[Moozillion]

After she saw the Spiderman movie, she had to try hanging on the sides of things herself...

 

[Moozillion]

Jacques claims that all turtles are BORN knowing Kung Fu!!! I didn't believe her, so she demonstrated some poses for me:

Kung Fu Pose Mighty Mountain:


Kung Fu Pose Standing Crane:



Kung Fu Pose Jazz Hands (I am a little skeptical of this one...):

 

[Alex Z]

Great looking lady. Love what yoi done with her home.

 

[Moozillion]

I have no idea what she's doing here, and I'm not sure she knows either...



And another booty shot!!!!!

 

[Alex Z]

Lololol!! What type of filtration you have setup for her?

 

[Moozillion]

I made the mistake of bringing home some sushi, and gave her the raw salmon. KOWABUNGA!!!!!!!! It is her MOST FAVORITE THING IN THE WORLD!!!!!!!! If I feed her salmon for a few days, then offer her ANYTHING else, she turns up her nose at it and won't eat for DAYS!!!

In this photo, my little drama queen is trying to convince me she is dying of a "Salmon Deficiency" and can only be saved by the IMMEDIATE application of raw, sushi-grade salmon!!!!!! I think she should get an Emmy nomination for this one...

 

[Moozillion]

Lololol!! What type of filtration you have setup for her?

I have a HOB filter given to me by a friend. It's an off brand- I don't even know what it was. I've got a Fluval on her current setup.

 

[Moozillion]

I really like the idea of a natural looking aquarium for my turtle. But I had no luck growing live plants. I got lots of plastic plants but she rearranges them, and they end up scattered all over the tank! I found this one that had a grid on the bottom so a larger area could be buried under the sand. I got it figuring she could't bother to uproot it.
I thought wrong!!!!!!! (...but who could be mad at THAT FACE????!?!?)

 

[Moozillion]

Gosh, she's grown so much since we first got her! I love the speckles on her face and neck!!!

 

[Moozillion]

I have always been amazed at how alert Jacques is. She watches us as much as we watch her, quickly comes to the front of the tank and she makes eye contact readily. Here, I was just taking a photo of Jacques next to my hand to send to a friend who wasn't clear on how big she is. As soon as I came next tot the tank, Jacques turned to face me! She sat there comfortably- I don't know if she was posing or if she was wondering what the heck I thought I was doing!!!!! Or maybe she's thinking "Dang paparazzi!"

 

[MrMarg&me]

Thank you for sharing. Soooo cute. I hope tomorrow's appointment goes well!

 

[Moozillion]

Thank you for sharing. Soooo cute. I hope tomorrow's appointment goes well!

Thank you! [emoji2][emoji173]️[emoji2][emoji173]️
I will be adding more pictures later this week!

 

[Bambam1989]

Go Jacques! Your an awesome kung fu tort! *Jazz Hands*

 

[CarolM]

I'm in love with Jacques. She is just so adorable. Can't wait for more posts.

 

[Moozillion]

I'm in love with Jacques. She is just so adorable. Can't wait for more posts.

Thank you so much!!!! [emoji2][emoji173]️

 

[Alex Z]

These are too classy. Making me want to get a bottom dweller for my group.

 

[Musa Nathan]

Very clever animals...can be socialised like you have explained...