Griffin, our big boy, had a super quick check up and his weight was taken as well. We needed the whole team and some volunteers help to get him to the scale. He is by far the biggest turtle we have weighing an enormous 193.6 pounds. After his weight check he got his daily tube feeding of fish gruel and vitamins and was back in his tank.

Spitfire, one of our turtles from Florida, had quite a fun workup. He got blood work taken, weighed, and an abcess on his neck debrided by Dr. Norton. He came in at 118.8 pounds. As, Spitfire’s name implies he is quite fiesty, he doesn’t like to be handled and as you can imagine he doesn’t sit still to make it easy. Many times the staff will have to wrangle the turtles like you would at a rodeo.

Turtle rodeos are always a great time for both the staff and the visitors. It gives us a chance to get some important work done as well as gather information for future research. For the visitors to the center it is a great opportunity to see the procedures up close and personal as many of them take place right in the rehab pavillion!