How long to detox turtles?

We live in an area surrounded by small to mid sized ponds. Each of these bodies of water have houses around them. Each of the houses around the bodies of water have lawns that get a cocktail of chemicals thrown at them to keep them looking green and artificial. Much of those chemicals wind up in the ponds.

In the ponds live tasty bits of meat called turtles.

This time of year they are on the move so have already picked one big girl off the road.

I would have eaten her by now except that the last turtle we ate tried to kill my mum she had an extreme allergic reaction to the meat! But as we had eaten another turtle just a few months ago with no trouble (and much enjoyment) I don't think it was the meat she was reacting to. As turtles are at the top of the pond food chain they will be concentrating the toxins caused by fools and their lawns.

So how long do you thing it would take for that stuff to work its way out of a turtles system if I kept it alive in clean water and fed it good fresh minnows?

I still have a small soft shell turtle in my little pond that we picked up last Autumn that I just havnt gotten round to doing anything with so its been in good water for five or six months.

Or should I just go throw it in the lake and not risk it?

I don't think I , personally, would risk it. Not after what happened to your Mum....

When we get bottom-feeders we keep them in the bath for 3 days to a week (depending how long we can go without bathing) to purge them. I also purge snails and so on for the same time.

With a turtle, I have no idea - would depend on the body mass i guess.
I would suggest finding some local old-timer and asking theor advice. Probably a bait shop is a good place to try.

Wilhelm Von Rhomboid wrote:When we get bottom-feeders we keep them in the bath for 3 days to a week (depending how long we can go without bathing) to purge them. I also purge snails and so on for the same time.

With a turtle, I have no idea - would depend on the body mass i guess.
I would suggest finding some local old-timer and asking theor advice. Probably a bait shop is a good place to try.

Even in bait shops I get "the look" when I ask things like that