I've had eastern painted turtles in my pond for years. They never bothered my goldfish or frogs. They will take a bite out of a lily once in a while, but they certainly don't destroy my pond plants. I've seen koi do much more damage. Koi require a special pond while painted turtles can exist in a water garden. Turtles like to travel and will leave your pond if you don't secure them. I use plastic fencing supported by rocks. They need basking areas, so you should have some rocks or land for them. If you feed them turtle pellets, they won't feed off of plants as much. My turtles also love watermelon. Painted turtles are native to my area, but they would not survive a cold winter in my pond. They dig into the mud at the bottom of natural lakes and ponds in November and hibernate until April. They can't do that in a pond with a rubber liner. I keep two turtles in a large indoor aquarium during the winter. If you can't do the same, I would forget about turtles.

i think turtlesale.com has some pretty good sales after the hatchÂnot sure when that is for them exactly. if you are thinking about ordering from them, you might want to call and ask. it might be worth the wait. i swear the last time i looked at the website they had some pretty good bulk sales of the more common species. it is one of the few places you can by turtles under 5" in the US. hatchlings are illegal to sell. apparently american kids like to put them in their mouths and in order to stave off the loss of an entire generation of americans to turtle poisoning, or benevolent goverment took time out of its busy schedule of imposing its will on the rest of the planet to pass a federal law to protect us from baby turtles (A.K.A. the war on turtles). you will notice that all the small turtles are not for sale but for adoption and the fee you pay is an adoption feeÂyou are technically not paying for the turtle. it is rediculous really. little bit of US law trivia for you. if you do buy some little babies, don't put them in your mouthÂthey might belong to a sleeper cell and mistake you for an american and then you are done for. lol. seriously though always wash you hands when handling things from your pond especially turtles. the weight loss program that follows (no wood will stay in you stomach for more than a few seconds) is not pleasant.

Now how cool is that?!? Your turtles will 'do their own thang'...LOL...that is, find water and a food source, as will your toads. Enjoy!

Like I said Mitchell. Just let me know when you want to come up and I'll be your guide. I know a place in Indiana near Champaign for Fox Snakes and Smooth Greens. Dave