Turtles

Lulu is our biggest resident and weighs in at a whopping 28 stone. That’s huge! Mind you, she’s had plenty of time to get to that size - Lulu and Gulliver are around 82 years old!

• Herman is ancient. Not him exactly, but his species have no close relatives, and his ancestors outlived the dinosaurs! This makes him a living fossil. 
• Herman was donated to us after he outgrew his tank and was given to us to look after. We don’t mind. He’s a very nice Turtle although he doesn't like other turtles. He eats vegetation and will occasionally eat cockles, large shrimps and pellets.
• The Pig Nosed Turtle is the only freshwater turtle, which has flippers in the place of feet! They have sharp claws and are very strong.
• Unbelievably, the eggs of this turtle hatch underwater.

• The temperature of the sand in which a Sea Turtle's eggs are buried determines what gender they will be. If it's warmer they'll be girls, cooler and they'll be boys!

• A Green Sea Turtles body fat is bright green! This is because they eat only seagrass and algae and are completely herbivorous as adults. Its how they got their name. Baby Green Sea Turtles, on the other hand, eat Crabs, Sponges and Jellyfish.

It's easy to tell! Look for the smallest Terrapins with the longest claws, those are the boys. Males sometimes swim in front of the females, who are much larger than them, and wiggle their long claws in the ladies faces to try and impress them.

Terrapins are often bought when they are very small and cute, but they aren't ideal pets: They need lots of varied food, a heat lamp for sunbathing, lots of water for swimming and they can live for over 40 years!

In fact, all of our Terrapins have been rescued from people who couldn't look after them anymore.

Plastic bags are deadly to Sea Turtles which often mistaking them for their favourite food, Jellyfish, and choke on them.