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News from my adopted coota, Glitter Mittens

I adopted Glitter Mittens, a green turtle, "coota" in the Gullah language, at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center on Jan 5, 2020
I fell in love with and “adopted” a Green Turtle named Glitter Mittens.  She came to the Center on June 30, 2019 after she was found floating near Morning Star Marina in Savannah, GA after being hit by a boat. The injury caused a severe head fracture and displacement of her left eye out of the socket.

When Glitter Mittens first arrived, she was in critical condition and placed on a waterbed.  They didn't think she would make it.  Once Glitter Mittens became more stable, her left eye was removed and the skull fracture was stabilized. Glitter Mittens got her name from the “mittens” the Center staff devised for her to keep her from accidentally disconnecting the oxygen tubing she needed in the first critical days.

Glitter Mittens is recovering well and is scheduled to be released in the Spring 2020.  As her adopted mother I will be receiving emails and pics from her, and, I hope, an invitation to her release party if they make it a public event.  The staff say that sea turtles, even without an eye and/or a flipper, do quite well back in the wild.  I love you Glitter Mittens!  Mommie 

January 15, 2020
Glitter Mittens is resting on a "turtle tamer" while she gets weighed. A turtle tamer is simply an upside-down bucket to keep the turtle from moving around too much.
News from rehab: When she first arrived, Glitter Mittens weighed 2.9 kg (6.4 lbs); by October 4, Glitter Mittens had grown to 4.5 kg (9.9 lbs). It was at that time we determined that Glitter Mittens needed to be put on a diet to prevent the turtle from becoming overweight. We began by decreasing the amount of food Glitter Mittens received by 25% and increasing the amount of vegetables she was getting (leafy greens, cucumber, and green bell pepper). On October 11, we decreased the number of times Glitter Mittens was fed to two meals daily. Since then, we have continued to reduce the amount of food Glitter Mittens receives because she is still at higher weights than what we want. At her largest on December 12, Glitter Mittens weighed about the same as a gallon of paint, 5.4 kg (11.9 lbs). She now gets just 4 g (0.1 oz) of seafood gel and greens once per day. Hopefully we will find the perfect diet for Glitter Mittens soon to maintain her at a healthy weight. (Like mommie, like daughter, I guess. Hopefully I will be losing weight too, here in Mexico.)