Sponsor a Turtle
NOTICE: The purchase of new sponsorships has been suspended for the time being. We hope to have this feature back up and running very soon. Thank you for your patience during this pause.
Huge thanks to all who have helped save turtle lives through sponsorship!
Huge thanks to all who have helped save turtle lives through sponsorship!
Many people are not in a position to foster or adopt an animal, but would still like to help. A great way to do this is to sponsor a turtle with Central MS Turtle Rescue! Our rescue relies on the generous support of of people like you.
Central MS Turtle Rescue provides all the needed medical care for the turtles in our rescue, as well as food, enclosures, UVB lights, heat, substrate, hides, etc. Reptiles heal slowly and, depending on the time of year, they cannot be released to the wild until weather conditions are favorable enough to ensure they will survive. The price tag to care for a turtle in our rescue adds up quickly.
We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and all donations are tax-deductible. Sponsoring a turtle is a great way to get involved when you are unable to foster or adopt. For other ways to help, please check out our How You Can Help page.
Central MS Turtle Rescue provides all the needed medical care for the turtles in our rescue, as well as food, enclosures, UVB lights, heat, substrate, hides, etc. Reptiles heal slowly and, depending on the time of year, they cannot be released to the wild until weather conditions are favorable enough to ensure they will survive. The price tag to care for a turtle in our rescue adds up quickly.
We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and all donations are tax-deductible. Sponsoring a turtle is a great way to get involved when you are unable to foster or adopt. For other ways to help, please check out our How You Can Help page.
Your sponsorship donation helps to cover the food, enclosure, and medical costs for the turtle you choose. We have 4 levels of sponsorship available for you to choose from.
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Sponsorships can be listed anonymously. If you'd prefer we not put your name on our website with the turtle you've sponsored, just shoot us an email or send us a message with your PayPal payment, and we will leave your name off as requested.
If you wish to purchase a sponsorship as a Christmas gift for someone, please do so prior to December 15, 2020. This allows us enough time to put together the sponsorship package and mail it out to you before the holiday rush that might cause delays in shipping.
** PLEASE NOTE ** we will ship the Certificate and picture to the address included with your PayPal payment. If you would like the package mailed to a different address or different name ... PLEASE make sure you indicate that information in the area provided with the 'add to cart' button. If there is an address added, we will mail the sponsorship gifts to that name and address for you. If you wish to mail or give the items as a gift yourself, just give us a name but no address. We will then mail the package to the address given to us by PayPal. Thank You! Questions or special requests? Shoot us an email to [email protected].
Turtles You Can Sponsor |
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Stoney is an adult female River Cooter who was hit by a car in November 2020. She sustained severe damage to her shell, and much of it had to be removed. She should heal, and scar tissue will form and harden, providing a protective barrier almost as hard as the original shell. Stoney's real story is in her unique front left arm. We're unsure if she was born this way, or if this formed after a previous injury, but her entire front left arm is made up of thousands of tiny claws. Instead of skin, keratin has formed, resulting in clusters on clusters of tiny claws. We've never seen anything like this before. If this resulted from an injury, we're curious to see how her recent injuries heal and whether they too will heal as keratin instead of skin.
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Zeta is an adult female Gulf Coast Box Turtle who was hit by a car and then somehow ended up on Biloxi Beach during Hurricane Zeta. Her injuries should heal, but sadly, since we don't know where she came from originally, she will not be releasable. She will be with us until we find her a permanent home.
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Lynda is an adult female River Cooter that was hit by a car near West Point, MS. Sadly, her head took most of the trauma. She is recovering, but unfortunately her eyes had to be removed. She will not be releasable since she is now blind. She'll remain with us until a permanent home for her can be found.
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Stewart is an adult male Gulf Coast Box Turtle that at some point in the past, survived a fire. The likely scenario is that he had found a nice pile of leaves to bury into for the winter. A homeowner, not knowing the turtle was under those leaves, set fire to the pile. Thankfully he made it out alive, but his shell sustained substantial damage. The bone is now dying and breaking off. He will remain with us until all of those pieces are gone, and the tissue underneath hardens. We still hope to be able to release him in the future, but he will likely be here with us for a year or more.
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Wyatt is an adult male Gopher Tortoise that was hit by a car in October 2020. He sustained a serious injury to the rear of his carapace (top shell), and part of the shell had to be removed surgically. He's doing well since his procedure and is healing well. He'll be here with us at least through the winter, and we will reevaluate him in spring 2021 for release.
Update July 2021 Sadly, Wyatt developed a mystery infection in February of this year. Despite all our (and The Department of Wildlife's) extraordinary efforts to save him, he succumbed to his illness in July. His body is being held for necropsy so that we can perhaps learn what infected his body and took his life. We will leave this up on the website in his honor through the end of 2021. |
JJ is an adult female Common Musk Turtle who suffered a horrific injury to her face. It looks like she was probably bitten by another animal - likely a larger turtle. She lost his left eye and the majority of her nose. She also doesn't appear to be able to see from her remaining eye. She's healing well, but will never be released. Once healed, she will have to be adopted into a permanent home.
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Keala is an adult female River Cooter that was hit by a car in summer 2020. The incident broke the back right portion of her carapace (top shell) as well as cracked it all the way up to the left of center. We were able to stabilize the broken edges of the break, and it is healing. We're hopeful that by spring 2021, she'll be completely healed and able to be released.
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Iris is a juvenile Sulcata Tortoise that came to us as a surrendered pet. Iris, despite her size (she's only 3.5" in shell length and weighs only 158 grams), is actually four years old. She didn't have the best nutrition during those years, so her growth is quite stunted. She also has low calcium density in her bones, resulting in her body being very soft and pliable. To add to her list of woes, Iris also has two very large bladder stones which have impinged upon a nerve which we believe has caused her to lose function in her back legs. Iris had to be sent to a specialized veterinarian in Gulfport for a series of procedures to break up and remove those stones. If that doesn't work, she'll have to have a more invasive surgery to remove them. Her recovery will be long, but we're hopeful that her youth will be to her advantage and she can power through these challenges.
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Noah is an hatchling Alabama Redbelly Cooter that hatched here at CMTR. Noah's mother was in care with us earlier this year. On the day she was released, we found a few eggs in the bottom of her tank. "Just in case", we put the eggs in the incubator, not really expecting them to be fertile or viable, but to our surprise, one of them hatched! Unfortunately, the one that hatched did so with a very deformed back right leg, as well as the portion of the shell right at the back right leg. He, surprisingly, does just fine in water, though. He uses that leg like there's nothing wrong with it, and can even walk on it. He'll stay here with us for quite some time, until we see how this deformity will effect him as he grows.
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Evelyn is an adult female alligator snapper who was hooked on a fishing line, beaten with a blunt object, and then shot and left for dead. She's undergone two surgeries to repair the damage left by the bullet and hook. Her shell is cracked on her right side from the damage inflicted by the blunt object, but it is thankfully not an open wound. She has a very long and tedious recovery ahead of her. As of this writing (5/30/20) she remains in critical condition.
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Ash is an adult male alligator snapping turtle who was hooked on a trot line and then beaten mercilessly with a shovel. (Yes, the authorities are aware and are handling it from a legal standpoint.) Surgery removed the hook from his throat and realigned his caved-in skull, but his recovery will likely be lengthy. Brain damage has not been ruled out. But Ash is a fighter, and we hope to help him to a full recovery and eventual release.
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Scooter is an adult male Eastern box turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina) who entered our care in 2012. Scooter was captured as a hatchling by a child who kept him under his bed in a pizza box for 7 years. His carapace deformity is the result of being kept in that improper enclosure, being fed an incorrect diet, and because Scooter was chronically deprived of proper light, temperature and humidity.
Scooter is an Educational Ambassador who exemplifies the harm of attempting to make a wild animal a pet. Most people are not aware of the time and fiscal investment necessary to keep these animals healthy. Their life span is decades long, and we are committed to educating people who love turtles how to help this species and how to identify responsible resources, such as adopting a rescue, when people want to enjoy these magnificent creatures and have them as family members. |