A winter photo of Axle

[king2005]

I had fun taking these photos. Axle is always so well behaved I couldn't have asked for a better buddy

[Miss Z]

Wow, is he a snapper turtle?

[king2005]

Yes he is

He is a 5yr old Common Snapping Turtle. His shell is about a foot long, his tail is 8 inches long, his claws are an inch long & he weighs more then 20 pounds (not sure how much, but I think hes put on atleast 5-10 pounds this summer)

[Jessika]

For some reason attachments on this forum haven't been wanting to load for me today. I can vaugely make out the picture from the thumbnail, but a snapping turtle? How cool. I've always been told they don't make good pets for handling hehe. I LOVE turtles though! I've owned two turtles and three tortoises in my lifetime so far and I REALLY want a Greek or Russian Tortoise

[Miss Z]

Wow, he's a big guy!

[king2005]

If you handle the turtle from a hatchling, there are little to NO issues. Its the same with Pit bulls, take care of them & they are kind loving pets, neglect & abuse them & they become agressive.

See hes just a big baby with a bad species rep.

[Jessika]

Well that's SO neat. Its just, in my experiences when I raised my RES hatchlings I did handle them frequently and as they got older they started to bite more and more.