Meet Neville...

My daughter has a painted turtle named Neville. She thinks I'm the best mom in the world, not only because I am, (not very humble though) but because I found Neville on a walk one Sunday morning about a year and half ago.... Well, actually our dog Anna found him but I was the one that picked him up and brought him home. The best part was that I crept into my daughters room and gently awakened her with, "Look what I found." She rolled her sleepy little eyes toward me, glanced down at my hand and quite literally SHOT awake. I vividly remember that smile she gave me and that was everything!

We didn't know much about 'Painted Turtles' at the beginning... My daughter made a comfy, mossy covered plastic container for him to roam in, filled with rocks and a little dish of water. She supplied him with some crickets she caught and we assumed 'Neville' was happy. Then we went to the pet store to find out more about caring for our new pet. 'Painted Turtles' we learned are aquatic creatures so we had to purchased a 10 gal. tank... 'Painted Turtles' need special lights... One to keep warm by and one that emits special UV rays in order to help them digest their food properly... 'Painted Turtles' need a filter in their tank, pellets to eat, dried 'crill' to munch on... I soon found out that 'Painted Turtles' are freaking expensive! A $100 later we left that store and I was left with the notion that I should have left the turtle where it was that day and kept on walking... But again, that smile my daughter gave me when I showed her the treasure in my hand that morning was worth oh, at least $150.

So Neville ended up with great new digs and my husband and my daughter ended up with a new household chore with which to bond... Cleaning the turtle tank once a month. So my daughter began feeding 'Neville' pellets... Which we found he had absolutely NO interest in... "It's a ball, it's dead and it floats.... What do you expect me to do with that?" he seemed to say. Then my daughter began feeding him the 'Crill' which stunk to high heaven but he loved them... We later found out that there's very little nutrtition in 'Crill' (it's likened to us living off of 'ding-dongs' but they smell SO much worse!)... My daughter read up a bit on-line about 'Painted Turtles' and found that they really enjoy crickets... But you had to be careful with crickets you found in your yard because they might have pesticides on them... However, when winter comes you needn't worry because you can't find crickets in your house or yard no matter how hard you look. That's when MY new job was defined... Racing around town to different pet stores to pick up crickets... Once we went to 'Petco' to purchase crickets and the $5 box was filled with mostly dead crickets (the few that were still alive were working on their wills) and far be it from Neville to eat anything not moving, besides 'Crill' that is.

So it goes... We're getting crickets once a week and feeding a ravenous 'Neville'... My daughter would feed him 2 or 3 crickets a day and he'd devour them in nothing flat... The rest of the crickets would live in an old pitcher in my daughters room and occassionally we'd find an escapee wandering along the upstairs hall... I amaze myself at how calm I can be when I come across live turtle food wandering through my house.

Well, a few weeks ago we discovered that there must be a problem with 'Neville' because he just wasn't growing the way a 'Painted Turtle' should. A new pet store we found 'Just Fish' told us that we simply weren't feeding our turtle anywhere near enough food and that the best diet for him would include 'black worms' and 'fish' (the place is called 'Just Fish'... Is it any wonder that they'd inform us we should be feeding our turtle 'FISH'??) So okay, we purchased a cup full of 'black worms' (imagine very fine, 1" long pieces of black linguini that writhes) and 15 'rosey red' gold-fish and walked out with smiles on our faces because this meal was WAY cheaper than crickets.

When we got home and bestowed our found treasures on 'Neville' he was beside himself with JOY! That turtle ate like we'd NEVER seen him eat before... Gobbling down fish, one right after the other (sounds gross but it's really fascinating to watch.)... And the worms, my God the worms... 'Neville' LOVES the worms and the remaining fish do too! So the fish get fed, Neville gets fed and the worms... Well, they make for good food I guess. Oh, and the other advantage to feeding 'Neville' fish is that they help maintain the tank... That's right, he eats the fish, they eat the waste products and everyone swims around in a clean tank... Yeah it's gross, but my husband and daughters tank cleaning duties have shrank considerably.

We're in our 3rd week now of purchasing fish for 'Neville' and every week he eats them up faster than the last. This week he went through 20 fish in 3 days... Which makes us feel REALLY bad when we think back to how much we were feeding him a month ago. So now I'm wondering exactly how many fish SHOULD we buy? Are we over-feeding him now? And how much longer before he's going to need a bigger tank? And how much is this all costing? Is it all worth it? And then I see that smile my daughter gives everytime her turtle makes a silly move or greets her swimming wildly when she walks into her room and I think... Yep, It's worth it!