That Turtle Place

That Turtle Place We are a public educational sanctuary focused on turtles! Join us to learn and appreciate these amazing creatures!🐢
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We inform visitors about their ecological importance, the challenges they face worldwide, and promote proper captive husbandry practices.

We welcomed 4 new Red-eared Sliders to the sanctuary today; 3 are normal, and one is albino. They will all stay indoors ...
02/16/2025

We welcomed 4 new Red-eared Sliders to the sanctuary today; 3 are normal, and one is albino. They will all stay indoors until this spring when it warms up.

As always, I would like to remind people that turtles and tortoises are some of the most rehomed animals on the planet, and it is crucial to do your research before bringing one home. These cheap-to-buy animals can cost a ton of money to set up properly and take far more care than most people think.

🐢Meet Elvis, the newest member of That Turtle Place!Russian tortoises are known for being super territorial, so Elvis wi...
02/14/2025

🐢Meet Elvis, the newest member of That Turtle Place!

Russian tortoises are known for being super territorial, so Elvis will be getting his very own setup this year to keep him happy and healthy.

Russian tortoises are a smaller species, making them fantastic pets compared to larger tortoise types! Just a heads up: many adult Russian tortoises in stores are wild-caught. Always opt for captive-bred babies when you can, even if they’re a bit pricier. It’s worth it for the health and happiness of your future shelled friend!

🐊Hard to believe how much Fred the Dwarf Caiman has grown! I remember it taking months of socializing before we brought ...
02/12/2025

🐊Hard to believe how much Fred the Dwarf Caiman has grown! I remember it taking months of socializing before we brought him to his first traveling reptile show. And now? He’s extremely comfortable and rarely shows any signs of discomfort or stress. Over the last year, he won’t even open his mouth in a defensive posture! Thats unless you put a camera in his face 😅

We’ve even taught him to come on command during feeding time, making it way less stressful for both of us when it’s time to travel. Less stress means lower risk of injury for me too!

🐢Egg laying season is just around the corner! While it's amazing to see our female slider turtles going through their na...
02/12/2025

🐢Egg laying season is just around the corner! While it's amazing to see our female slider turtles going through their natural cycle, we want to let you know we do not hatch any slider turtles here at our facility.

Most of the eggs are dug up right after mama gets out of her egg-laying trance and are used to feed our egg-loving animals. This happens before the eggs even have a chance to start incubation.

With so many slider turtles already out there, we believe it wouldn’t be right to hatch and offer baby slider turtles, especially given the high rates of death, release into the wild, legal aspects, and super high stress on rescues and sanctuaries.

To help reduce stress during breeding season, we'll be moving our larger females to the new, bigger pond while keeping the smaller males in the existing rescue turtle pond. This will create a healthier environment for everyone involved!

Stay tuned for more updates, and thanks for supporting our turtle family🐢!

02/11/2025

We consider ourselves a small, local turtle and tortoise sanctuary, but we have people from all over the country reaching out who want to surrender turtles. Last week, we picked up an adult female RES who came all the way from Ohio, and now we have folks from Michigan and Texas wanting to bring us their turtles. We are so grateful that people are finding out about us and seeing the amount of love we put into these animals.

We are often asked how many aquatic turtles we can house in our first pond, and we honestly don't know the answer. As of now, we have 30 in our smaller pond, and space is absolutely no issue so far. If I had to guess, 40 would be a number where they aren't stressed and can have an enjoyable life. Our new pond, on the other hand, is about four times the size of our current pond, and we will keep our larger turtles (mostly females) in the new pond.

We are not looking for more turtles, but if you or someone you know has a turtle who needs a home, please reach out. We want to make sure we give them a safe place to live and not be thrown into the wild where survival is extremely low and spread disease to our native populations.

🐢✨ Ever wonder how big those little $10-$20 sliders you find at flea markets and gift shops actually get? Check out this...
02/11/2025

🐢✨ Ever wonder how big those little $10-$20 sliders you find at flea markets and gift shops actually get? Check out this adorable hatchling (albino) red-eared slider compared to an adult female! She’s currently 10 inches long and can reach up to 12 inches!

Many shops mislead buyers with the idea that turtles only grow to the size of their enclosure. This sales technique has been around forever and often comes with a sales pitch for equipment too. If you’re thinking about getting a turtle, it's crucial to understand the time and money you'll need to invest in your new pet.

Remember, these are living beings that deserve the best life possible. That’s why we love giving our turtle residents naturalistic outdoor environments to call home!

Getting large rocks and boulders set, next step gravel and sand! What an incredible opportunity to create a haven for tu...
02/11/2025

Getting large rocks and boulders set, next step gravel and sand! What an incredible opportunity to create a haven for turtles to thrive in for years to come!

Missing Sulcata!
02/09/2025

Missing Sulcata!

Soaking the babies before breakfast; today is the day we lay down the pond liner in the new turtle pond!! 🥳
02/09/2025

Soaking the babies before breakfast; today is the day we lay down the pond liner in the new turtle pond!! 🥳

🌟 Meet Ceasarina! We just picked up this absolutely huge female Red Ear Slider, who made a long trip down all the way f...
02/08/2025

🌟 Meet Ceasarina! We just picked up this absolutely huge female Red Ear Slider, who made a long trip down all the way from Ohio!

She’ll be living the rest of her days peacefully in our outdoor turtle pond, but for now, she’ll stay inside until spring. Most likely, she’ll be joining the ladies in the XL rescue turtle pond soon!

A big thank you to her owner for driving all this way for this sweet girl!

The Star tortoise exhibit is almost complete. We will add a few more plants for shade and brows. We have also added a dr...
02/06/2025

The Star tortoise exhibit is almost complete. We will add a few more plants for shade and brows. We have also added a drinking/soaking pond and this cave-style hide, which will keep them cool on hot days. It's a completely different design than we are used to, and we are excited to start letting them roam on warm days. We will most likely house our juvenile redfoot in this exhibit with our Burmese star this year, because they have lived together for so long, and when the redfoot is large enough, she can go with the adult redfoots.

Gillis the Albino Red Ear Slider Albinism is a genetic condition that stops the body from producing or distributing mela...
02/06/2025

Gillis the Albino Red Ear Slider

Albinism is a genetic condition that stops the body from producing or distributing melanin, which is the pigment responsible for coloring the hair, skin, and eyes.

Did you know 1 out of 18,000 people have a form of albinism?!

‼️Update on the craziness from yesterday‼️For those who missed the recent assult on our page the past 24 hours, we’d lik...
02/05/2025

‼️Update on the craziness from yesterday‼️

For those who missed the recent assult on our page the past 24 hours, we’d like to take a moment to address it and share our journey. We’ve also been made aware by one of their family members that this is a normal occurrence for this individual starting issues with people and businesses in the community.

As many of you already know, we’ve had to implement significant changes recently and have made difficult decisions, including parting with some of our beloved animals. We are incredibly grateful to our generous donors for helping us in the past. Without your support, we would have been forced to make these tough choices back in the summer.

We lead a very modest life – no vacations, inexpensive meals, and our sanctuary’s operational costs far exceed our personal living expenses because we are committed to providing the absolute best for the animals in our care.

Currently, we are facing criticism from a person who is not only misinformed but also has been met with disapproval from others in the community. While her attempts to slander our efforts are frustrating, we remain focused on our mission. This individual has accused us of misleading donors regarding the use of contributions. We want to clarify that we have been transparent from the start: our goal was to keep the animals we have, but goals aren’t always met.

Every dollar we receive, along with our personal funds, goes directly back into the sanctuary. We generate our income through our traveling reptile show, which is also why we've had to part with some regulated animals. Unfortunately, due to unexpected inspections, we've had to cancel shows that people were eagerly looking forward to, which puts our livelihood at risk.

We know that if we were to announce rehoming certain animals, our inbox and comment would be flooded with offers to help. However, we don’t want to rely on begging for support every few months to stay afloat. We had plans to rehome only when absolutely necessary, but given the recent scrutiny, we felt it was time to share where we are currently.

Our passion for turtles and tortoises has grown tremendously. Witnessing animals that have lived in poor conditions for years sometimes decades find their forever homes in spacious, nurturing environments has been life-changing for us. While we understand that some may not fully grasp our shift in focus, it brings us joy to know we are making a positive difference for these creatures, and the mindset about them from the general public.

We want to extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone who stood up for us during this difficult time. If you witnessed the things being said, you know how supportive our community has been. We are truly thankful to have such a strong support system as we navigate through this challenging phase and continue to adapt our mission.

We understand that this news may be disappointing, but we assure you that we will keep providing our community with a meaningful place to bring family and friends without breaking the bank, while also advocating for these animals. We are keeping our birds, farm animals, reptiles, and of course TURTLES AND TORTOISES!! 😊 and will continue to open starting this spring. We are excited to show people the many changes we have made and we look forward to seeing everyone in the spring!

02/05/2025

As much as I'd love to continue watching everyone have our backs in that recent post from a few days ago, I have animals that I need to take care of. Thank you all for having our backs! We will make a post and video tomorrow, or as soon as I can, explaining what's going on!

New signs came in today!!
02/04/2025

New signs came in today!!

Chapter one of our journey is over, but we are so excited for our new adventures. We have finally found our true passion...
02/03/2025

Chapter one of our journey is over, but we are so excited for our new adventures. We have finally found our true passion and can’t wait for what’s to come. Taking down our old sign was heartbreaking in its own way, but we are excited for our new signs to be finished this week!

This has been an up-and-down journey over the last five years, but if we’re being honest, we are happier now with the changes we have made or are working on. Although some changes are extremely hard, we always try to look to the future and focus on what works for us and what we truly want to promote in our lifetime. Thanks to everyone who has stuck around over the years, and we hope to see some of you this season when we reopen in the spring!

So close to finishing Gogh, our Burmese star tortoises exhibit. This design is completely different from what we've done...
02/03/2025

So close to finishing Gogh, our Burmese star tortoises exhibit. This design is completely different from what we've done before with tortoises, and we hope to have finished pictures by tomorrow evening. We just have to figure out his drinking and soaking pond and where we may add some more grasses and plants. Gogh was donated to us by a great friend we met through doing this to help teach people about the struggles this species faces in the wild. We are definitely worn out with all these projects, but can't wait to open up and show everyone our ‘new’, more purpose driven facility!

Address

11926 Upper Columbus Road
Coker, AL
35452

Opening Hours

11am - 3pm

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Videos

Making the decision to bring in an animal who was bred to be almost completely blind wasn't an easy one. Many will say to not purchase one because it only promotes more breeding, but there are many things to consider like what about this particular animal?... should he just never have a home because of how he was born? We know living with us he will be able to teach so many valuable lessons to future animal keepers. #thatturtleplace #notthrowawaypets #rescuetortoises #cokeralabama #weloveturtles #albinoiguana

Been loving these warm days! #thatturtleplace #notthrowawaypets #rescuetortoises #cokeralabama #weloveturtles #turtlesanctuary #TuscaloosaAL

Hardest part of the dig completed 👍🏽 now to dig it deeper and make the shelves for rocks to set on and turtles to have multiple areas to bask and rest. This project will allow us to take in way more ex pets, and give them as natural of a life as possible! This is a dream project for us and we are so excited to have broken ground on it. Not going to lie, our stamina still isn’t great after being so sick, but we pushed through this first day. Only 40,000 shovel loads to go 😅 #thatturtleplace #notthrowawaypets #weloveturtles #TuscaloosaAL #rescuetortoises #cokeralabama #turtlesanctuary #rescueturtlepond

The weather has finally cleared up enough to continue progress on the critically endangered Burmese Star Tortoise exhibit. If you’ve visited before, this will replace the old, smaller round exhibit we used for juvenile tortoises over the past few years. This much larger exhibit will allow for better views for our guests during our larger field trips and private tours. We can’t wait to reopen and have visitors see the progress! #weloveturtles #notthrowawaypets #cokeralabama #turtlesanctuary #TuscaloosaAL #rescuetortoises #thatturtleplace #burmesestartortoise

Patiently waiting in spring 🐢 #turtlesunderice #notthrowawaypets #turtlesanctuary #cokeralabama #TuscaloosaAL

Just got finished upgrading Asaras new grow out enclosure and he’s exploring while I make sure temps, humidity, and UV are all on point. When we first got him he was housed in an area where he couldn’t see out and it was very hard to see in. This was to make sure he wasn’t stressed being in a new home with normal daily activity from us walking around. He has really come out of his shell and will even walk towards us now so we decided to upgrade him to a see through front. Three of the sides are covered because they really don’t understand the concept of glass and some can continue to try and push through and pace the glass. If your tortoise does do this, it’s very easy to place some paper on the outside of three sides, and if they continue doing it at the glass side I’d personally recommend you do all 4 sides. Grow outs are a great way to get baby tortoises started because it’s easier to keep an eye on humidity levels and keep things more stable. If it’s a screened top you can cover it with plastic or plexiglass to hold in the moisture but be aware that stagnant air can produce mold so we tend to let it “burp” for a few hours every day. We also have 2 different hides, one on the cool side and one in the hot side which allows him to feel secure while sleeping. We also spray the underside of the hides daily to mimic them hunkering down in root balls and dirt in the wild where the humidity is typically a lot higher, even if the humidity above ground level is low. Although lighting, and diet can have an impact on pyramiding of the shells, it’s is primarily due to lack of hydration and proper humidity. Feeding pre mad processed foods that are dry only, can have a real negative effect especially on juveniles. Feeding real greens or even soaking pre made diets can definitely help. Everyone has different ways of setting up babies, but this has proven to be a great way for us!

One of last years rescues spending his first winter like she would naturally in the wild. It’s important that you let brumating species accumulate to the changing weather so their bodies can slow down naturally. Our native brumating species almost completely go off of food during the winter and when spring arrives they have a big appetite before starting breeding and egg laying (we do not allow any sliders to hatch here)

Midas enjoying a snack while I clean his cage. We love this little lizard! #notthrowawaypets #bighamfarmsturtleandtortoisesanctuary #rescuetortoises #cokeralabama #turtlesanctuary #turtlerescue #TuscaloosaAL #supportoursanctuary

#rescueturtlepond #notthrowawaypets #bighamfarmsturtleandtortoisesanctuary

If you haven’t donated to our newest rescue turtle pond it would mean the world to us and the turtles we rescue! This is no way to live, and we can’t wait to see them swimming around in a natural outdoor pond next spring! Message us if you’d like to donate. #notthrowawaypets #bighamfarmsturtleandtortoisesanctuary #supportoursanctuary #rescuetortoises

He’s growing so fast! #bighamfarmsturtleandtortoisesanctuary #notthrowawaypets #supportoursanctuary #rescuetortoises #cokeralabama #animaleducation #turtlesanctuary #turtlerescue #TuscaloosaAL

No one should be alone on Christmas. #bighamfarmsturtleandtortoisesanctuary #notthrowawaypets #supportoursanctuary #rescuetortoises #cokeralabama #animaleducation #turtlesanctuary #turtlerescue #TuscaloosaAL #whatisupmyguy #grinch

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