This is Myrtle, a common snapping turtle. We found her as a hatchling, crawling across the ground in my grandmother's yard. We raised her for approximately 1.5 years. In that time, she tripled the size she was in this picture. I account this partly to her high protein diet. When I  could, I would try to catch her live  prey. The most plentiful prey I could find was tadpoles.  I would catch two or three hundred of these and put them in  her aquarium. She would eat them like popcorn, and within two days they all would be gone. However as big as she was, she has a a long way to go be before she reaches her mother's size. We found her mother on my grandmothers front steps once , and she was around one and a half feet long or bigger.    In comparison, Myrtle started out only slightly larger than a quarter, but one day she could become the second largest turtle in north America.   

P.S   Her mother was seen laying eggs this year, more on that later.