r/snappingturtles

Hi y’all, hoping someone can offer some advice. When my guy was in his smaller tank on the floor he was so sweet, would eat from my hand, let me pick him up & was very chill. The larger tank came with a new room to house it in because of its size & this tank is on a stand so it’s higher up, since the move he HATES me!!! Tries to bite if I pick him up, he hates walking around now, he hisses & peed on me once & any time I do tank maintenance or open top to feed he runs and hides… How can I make friends again & why would the change to a BETTER environment cause this reaction? I’m so sad

I had lots of fun with these Turtles, every spring they would crawl under the fence between my place of work and a huge pond to crawl up onto these rodent bait traps. I would make sure to get them back on their side of the fence to avoid heavy truck traffic on our side.

Ameri-Stumpp getting some pats after some photos.

This is an alligator snapping turtle. He was walking down the middle of my street. After posing for a picture or two I tried to move him to the side of the road into the grass but he didn’t want me to do that. After swinging his tail and waving his arms around I agreed with him.

This great big snapper has always been my fishing buddy when the waters warm

Her (I think) head is as big as my fist and she is really large for a common snapper. Must be really old. Size 11 crock for scale

Shockingly friendly, and completely unafraid of me. It comes right up to my feet which is kind of wild for a wild turtle to do.

'MERICA!

Stumpp and I in-between our 4th of July pics, that I'll be posting tomorrow.

We like to sit outside not far from my backyard peach tree, and this time of year, these little almond-sized baby peaches fall off the tree like occasional, solo hailstones. Gar has decided that they remind him a lot of his freeze-dried chicken hearts, and has chosen to treat them accordingly. Homie, we all know you can't swallow out of water!

I was gone for nearly a week out in Vermont, as my daughter was giving birth to her very first baby, and I went up there to stay to babysit their dog while they were in hospital, welcome them home, and be a pair of helping hands for the first few days. My housemates watched Gar for me, and when I got back last night, it was clear he was happy I came home.

As soon as I came into the room, he damn near launched himself out the surface of his water trying to climb out to get to me, and even after I held him a few times and played with him a little, afterwards when I put him back in his tank he still kept trying to get back out and into my lap, to the point where he refused to even eat the food I put in for him and had to fish it out so it wouldn't just float there all night.

Woke up this morning and not long after I turned his lights back on for the day, he woke up from his sleep and started doing his attention dance again. This time, I gave him exactly what he wanted - I scooped him up, grabbed my book, and brought him outside.

He immediately walked about two and a half, 3 ft in front of me just out of the range of the shade and plopped down in the sun, and has been relaxing and blinking at me quite happily for the last 20 minutes just looking around and taking in the breeze and all the various sights to see.

I had a wonderful time meeting my granddaughter and getting to take an extended visit with my daughter and her partner, but goodness this little guy also reminds me why it's great to come home!

Meet RHONDA!! :D

Found September 23rd, 2026, Lancaster, PA.

How often do y’all interact with your common snapper, physically, and how does he or she react? I’d love to see photos and videos, thanks!

We have a turtle at our botanical garden a guest said his neck was bleeding but idk anything look wrong woth him do we contact anyone based out of ny

Stumpp is enjoying this Florida sun a LOT more than my ginger ass is.

He gets out of his pond and just stands there enjoying the moment I guess.

Gar is growing up to be such a brave, confident, relaxed but still stubborn little dude. He's been feeling adventurous enough to go about 6 ft away from me, 7 ft at most, lay down and relax and watch the world beyond the trees at least as far into the long distance as he can see, and then turn around and slowly make his way back towards me again, stopping to relax and do a little up Periscope action every so often here and there...

And of course, he will often try to make his way over to the Forbidden trailers if he thinks I'm going to let him get away with it. Which I never do, but it doesn't stop him from making the attempt, one of which I have thwarted just now as I'm dictating this. He's currently sitting on one of the flat wooden scrap planks I have under my scare squirrel beneath my peach tree, Periscope head looking from side to side and blinking at me dourly for being such a spoil sport. And now he's wandered over to rest between my feet before once again heading back at a vague angle towards the trailers but in such a way where it would look to the unfrained eye that he's trying for something else but I know what he's up to. He's going to start heading for the foundation of the house and then try to skirt around the corner instead of heading for the tire directly and yep... There he goes now. Caught at the corner once more, and once again I'm going to tuck him into the makeshift little cave that I made him out here of a large old pot that I turned over onto its side, so I can show him that some things are okay but the trailers are yes, Forbidden.

And now he's staring at me from his new front porch, just outside of the pot looking up at me with head fully outstretched like ma'am, what do you want me to do with this?