LEWISTON — When Matt Reed adopted Lucy sight unseen a few years ago, he thought he was getting a turtle about the size of his other one, Mr. Turtle. Maybe she’d be 8 inches long. Maybe weigh a couple of pounds.

Instead she was 14 inches, 20 pounds. That made hiding the red-eared slider turtle from his parents a little difficult, though, surprisingly, not impossible.

“They didn’t know I had her for the first couple of weeks,” said Reed, now 20. “Originally she was in my room. They don’t go in my room very often. Then one day they went upstairs to do something and they saw her.”

Luckily, both Lucy — and the then-teenaged Reed — were allowed to stay.

Three years later, Lucy enjoys a handmade, 220-gallon tank, with fresh water to swim in and a heat lamp to bask under. She has a companion — Mr. Turtle — to communicate with, if only through glass. He gets too affectionate, and Lucy, who outweighs him times 10, can snap off his limbs if she gets annoyed enough, so they enjoy separate tanks next to each other and with a good view of their basement rec room.

“They’re very curious. They like to know what’s going on. So when we’re down here, they’ll be at the edge of the glass,” Reed said. 

Reed became fascinated by turtles when he was a little boy. He got his first turtle when he was 7 or 8, and he got Mr. Turtle several years later, after that first pet died.

Mr. Turtle, also a red-eared slider, is now about 9 years old. Lucy, Reed believes, is somewhere between 12 and 20 years old. Red-eared sliders can live 40 years or more in captivity.

Both eat pellets made specifically for turtles, plus fruits and vegetables to supplement their diets. While Mr. Turtle is picky about his food, Lucy will eat almost anything else that finds its way into her tank.

“If I were to put my hand in, she’d try to take a chunk out of that if she could,” Reed said. 

Even though he never takes the turtles out of their tanks — they get scared and bite — Lucy and Mr. Turtle are entertaining for him and his friends.

“Looking at them, watching them. You can’t take them out and play with them, but it’s fun to just watch them swim around,” he said. 

Reed’s parents are a little less enthusiastic. The two turtles require six fluorescent lamps, two heat lamps, three motorized filters and three heaters. All that equipment adds to the electric bill. Reed and his turtles live with his parents in Lewiston while he attends Central Maine Community College in Auburn.

Reed is earning a degree in criminal justice and plans to become a police officer. He also plans to have more turtles, though they won’t be red-eared sliders, at least not in Maine.

In 2010, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife restricted red-eared sliders, banning their sale, trade, adoption or release. Because Reed had his pets before the new rule went into effect, he’s allowed to keep Mr. Turtle and Lucy.

But someday, he said, he’d like to have other turtles. Maybe even a community tank with four or five. 

“I would have more now if my parents would let me,” he said.

Have an idea for Animal Tales? Contact Lindsay Tice at 689-2854 or [email protected]