Opinions needed on Twig’s mouth

Hi everyone I was recently given a baby ornate box turtle from a reptile hoarding situation. He seems to be doing quite well he is extremely active, eating normally, soaking in his bath regularly, and his overall showing no abnormal behaviors. I recently got him to start eating off of my tongs it’s just something fun I like to do with all my turtles for bonding! And his mouth seems a little pale and I’m just not as familiar with this species as other turtles at this age and wanted a some opinions on if I should worry about the color. I do not believe he has mouth rot has he is always very eager to eat or any respiratory issues as he is showing no common signs of that.

Some additional info:
He is 11 grams and around 1.5 inches (I weigh him weekly and there has been no weight loss)
He is fed mostly cut up night crawlers but has eaten small crickets when offered and isopods from his bioactive setup. As well as I offer him fresh greens daily if he’s interested and every few days I’ll give him a small bite of strawberry or cantaloupe.
I have only recently started him on supplements and vitamins but for that he gets herptivite and repti-cal with D3.
His enclosure is a 40 gallon bioactive tub with tube uvb lighting. The humidity stays around 80% and the overall temperature is around 76 Fahrenheit during the day and it will dip to 73 at night. His basking spot is an around 80. The substrate is a mix of eco earth and organic topsoil. If I am missing any important information please let me know! He had a very rough start to life and I just want him to be able to thrive now!

He looks great. I'd get humidity and the moisture level up higher. Do a search for the "water method" of raising baby box turtles. It's pretty neat. I don't advocate for one way or the other, but its interesting and appears to work well from what I've seen.

Also, I see white flecks in the soil. If that is perlite, it needs to be removed ASAP. For some reason our chelonians like to eat it and it can slowly kill them.

Tom said:

He looks great. I'd get humidity and the moisture level up higher. Do a search for the "water method" of raining baby box turtles. It's pretty neat. I don't advocate for one way or the other, but its interesting and appears to work well from what I've seen.

Also, I see white flecks in the soil. If that is perlite, it needs to be removed ASAP. For some reason our chelonians like to eat it and it can slowly kill them.

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Thank you! I will definitely get him new substrate today as I’m not sure if it’s perlite and I’d rather not risk that because he does like to burrow! And I’ll definitely be looking into the water method I’ve also increased the humidity and it’s reading at 95% at ground level is this to high? Thankfully his enclosure maintains humidity extremely well!

Beetle_Rain said:

Thank you! I will definitely get him new substrate today as I’m not sure if it’s perlite and I’d rather not risk that because he does like to burrow! And I’ll definitely be looking into the water method I’ve also increased the humidity and it’s reading at 95% at ground level is this to high? Thankfully his enclosure maintains humidity extremely well!

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95% is not too high for a baby box turtle. Its great! Best advice I ever received for box turtles came from our own Maggie here on TFO: Make sure to always have large shallow water features. Lots of water. Babies are semi-aquatic. Just make sure it's safe and easy for the baby to get in and out of. I like terra cotta plant saucers the best.