Tiff, The Turtle Lady, Re-Homes Some Hatchlings . . . .

Our Daughter, Tiffnie Schindler Gonzales, has ALWAYS been fond of critters, having the usual childhood pets, such as hamsters, parakeets, turtles, etc. Heck, she even had chickens, and we lived in the city and had no chicken coop. That’s another story, for another time.

Anyway, Tiff’s not only into critters, she’s also into Nature Conservation. Selena and I are proud to share this article on one of Tiff’s most recent adventures.

Keith, the K in The SnK.

“Fifteen years or so ago, when I worked retail, I got to talking to a customer about turtles. At the time I only had aquatic turtles, but over the years I’ve become the go to when a friend of a friend needs to re-home a turtle they can no longer care for. This time it just so happened to be box turtles; they’d had theirs for a number of years and like critters do, they’d multiplied.

Wanting to re-home a few, and get their pets back down to a more manageable number, they asked if I’d be interested. At the time, I was wanting to get away from owning aquatic turtles; they’re fascinating animals, but if you don’t have time to keep up with cleaning their habitat THEY STINK. So began my adventure in owning three toed box turtles.

Over the years box turtles have become common pets, but unfortunately most do not make it far into their 40+ year lifespan due to lack of knowledge about their housing and dietary needs. I’ve done my best to replicate their natural habitat that within their enclosure, and I try to feed them various things they would consume in the wild as well as supplementing their diet with vitamins needed for proper health and development.

I also keep chickens, so I’ve always got a good supply of eggs, I pick up produce on mark down from the grocery store and have started meal worm and super worm farms which survive off of whatever leftover veggie scraps the chickens and turtles would ignore. If you’re resourceful enough, a lot of things needed for happy, healthy box turtles can be obtained easily and on the cheap, if not for free.

I’ve noticed my box turtles getting “intimate” and digging holes to lay eggs on multiple occasions and recently discovered 8 hatchlings roaming their enclosure. Back in February my husband and I volunteered to run a table for the Texas Bluebird Society out at LLELA, Lewisville Lake Environmental Learning Area, and spoke with Master Naturalist Scott Kiester about their resident box turtles and reintroduction project. I tracked down Scott, offered them the newest 8 for their project and was so excited when they agreed to take them on.

Three toed box turtles are native to our area so the best place for these guys to go is back into the wild where they belong. LLELA consists of 2,000 acres of prairie, wetlands and forests owned by the Corps of Engineers. Students as well as scientists from local universities utilize LLELA as a living classroom, it’s an amazing place to visit.

Another Master naturalist, and fellow box turtle lover, by the name of Hugh Franks volunteered to foster the hatchlings over the winter months and picked them up from me a few days ago. I enjoyed visiting with him and his wife about his adventures in keeping box turtles which began when he was about 12 years old, I look forward to keeping in touch with him and following these guys on their adventure back into the wild.