We have decided to name our turtles Kermit and Miss Piggy. The female has a healthy appetite and rapidly learned to make eye contact to incite her captors to feed her. Since she earned the nickname Miss Piggy, it was only natural the smaller male should be named Kermit.
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| Kermit |
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| Miss Piggy |
My husband wrote the following synopsis:
Kermit spends most of his time hidden beneath the suntanner's tablestone. He hides in his little cave made from cinder block. Miss Piggy leaves him alone and she patrols the perimeter, always on the alert for fresh food. Their favorite menu items consist of tilapia, worms, water hyacinth, elodea seaweed, turtle nuggets, and shiners. Surprisingly, red eared sliders supplement their carnivorous diet with herbaceous plants. The water hyacinth has taken a beating with huge chunks missing from turtle bite marks.
Kermit is a fast and agile swimmer. He dodges the potted water plant and chases down the shiners. On a weekly basis, I deposit 12 minnows into the pool and within a day, there are only four left. Miss Piggy isn't really fond of working for her food and I attribute the shiner decline to Kermit. He prefers hunting the bottoms instead of basking at the surface begging for food. On one occasion, Miss Piggy went after Kermit in an attempt to restrain his minnow consumption. Kermit didn't pay any attention to her and dragged the larger turtle around the bend. He still captured the minnows while embroiled in an instinctive frenzy. Miss Piggy eventually let him go.
Miss Piggy loves tilapia, and I feed the turtles at separate ends of the pond. Kermit scuttles from his cave, snares mouthfuls of fish, and disappears from view. Miss Piggy watches my pink fingers and will come directly to the surface. Sometimes, I push her away as I drop the morsels into view. She doesn't seem to mind the touch of human hands. She darts her head momentarily into her shell and then pops her neck out within seconds. She's a driven turtle, not one to miss a single hand out.
Early in the morning, the pair sunbathe on the sandstone rock. Kermit forgives Miss Piggy her pushy ways and he sunbathes above her in a mounted turtle pose. Jeanie worries about baby turtles since one's a female and one's a male. A male slider courts the female with a long nailed flutter to her face. If she invites him to mate, then intercourse should follow. But Miss Piggy isn't having any of his proposals. In fact, Kermit seems too afraid to even flirt with her. When I bought him, he courted a smaller female continuously at PetSmart.
