Candace's Reeves
Candace's Reeves is named Gruffy and lives in Wyoming, USA. Her son named her. She's had her for about 11 years. Her son rescued her from a school because they did not want her anymore!  How gentle he is! Candace and her family like her very much.  In summer, she lives in their greenhouse on the floor, with a large pan of water. In winter, she goes into an aquarium in the house.  In January of 2002, she was about 5.5 inches long and 4 inches wide, with a weight of 374 grams.  Candace has no idea how old she is.
She sometimes gives her a "bath" in a bucket. Actually, it's a "sulfur bath" made for water turtles. She puts her in there for about half an hour, then dries her with a towel and applies a moisturizer to her shell. The moisturizer is also made especially for turtles. She likes to run around the house sometimes, and she can get going pretty fast.
Gruffy has always been healthy. When they first got her, however, Candace noticed a small hole in her shell, which is why she started the sulfer baths. Fortunately, the hole did go away.
She feeds her every other day or so. Gruffy decides when!  When she sees Candace, Gruffy knows that she will be fed whenever she wants. In fact, she will even go into the water and beg if she's really hungry. 
Candace mostly feeds her "pelleted" water turtle food and occasionally gives her some large worms.  She varies the pellets by using different brands. She says that Gruffy does have her favorites!
Her lights are on a timer, so they turn off at around 5 p.m. and come back on at 7 a.m. 
In the summer of 2001, they found a "painted turtle". It was walking right down the street and they were afraid it would get run over by a car!  They kept it for a few weeks and it did well -- eating worms and crickets -- but they decided to let it go back to the wild. It was a large and beautiful male turtle that deserved to be free. Candace sometimes wishes she had kept it -- it was so pretty! However, Gruffy was scared to death of it: snorting and running away anytime she saw it. They didn't put them together too often; they were afraid Gruffy might get hurt!  She sent me these pictures of the Painted turtle. She says that they are all around there in Wyoming. What a nice place!
She also has two fire-bellied toads. She tells me that fire-bellied toads are very popular over there, and that you can find them in most pet shops. I guess it is because of their nice colors.  She raises her own "flightless fruit flies" for them. She has also had a male betta fish for two years. His name is "blue" and his color is...what else? -- Blue!!  She likes him a lot too.