JoseyWales
New Member
Howdy y'all,
Quick intro from me! Not new to animals but new to tortises/box turtles. I have some experience with reptiles but used to be an avid poison dart frog breeder/hobbiest. I remember how useful the dart frog forum was for me which is why I am here today!
Backstory: When my girlfriend was younger, her and her family found two box turtles (I believe ornate box turtles) in the high desert of southwestern Wyoming (which doesn't actually have any native turtle or tortise populations from what I can find, so how they got there is anybody's guess).
She moved away for school and the parents "took care" of the boxies and now they are in bad shape. Now, I generally know better than to accept the responsibility of an animal's well being without actually doing the proper research beforehand, but not all folks share that conviction, and me taking the turts for now was the only way I could guarantee a specialized approach to recovering them would be taken. Here is what I know about their care over the last 1.5 years (from what I remember)
-Intermittant to (as of lately) nonexistant UVB lighting/heat lighting
-No varied diet (some kind of turtle food)
-No supplements
-No temp/RH regulation
-40 gallon breeder aquarium with one small hide
They are still relatively active but are no doubt suffering from these conditions. My question to y'all is three-fold:
1. What can I do immediately to improve the health of these boxies without putting them under too much stress from changes? My plan so far is to get both a UVB bulb and a spot lamp and set up a warm/cool side, replace the substrate (prolly coco husk/sphagnum mixture, I have several gallons of ABG mix from my dart frog days laying around that would work probably), put a few more hides in, and start feeding an actual varied diet.
2. What can I do to get them healthy over a longer period of time? I read that malnourished boxies need to be slowly acclimatized to supplements. What does this look like from a frequency standpoint? How often should I dust? Also, from my dart frog days, I remember that I was a big fan of Repashy supps because they used a form of vitamin A that the frogs could actually process. Is there a similar thing with turtle supps? What sort of supplements am I looking for?
3. Is there a resource for box turtle rescues or something in my local area (SE WY/Northern CO)? Just in case something happens and I decide I'm in over my head.
Thanks everybody,
-JW
Quick intro from me! Not new to animals but new to tortises/box turtles. I have some experience with reptiles but used to be an avid poison dart frog breeder/hobbiest. I remember how useful the dart frog forum was for me which is why I am here today!
Backstory: When my girlfriend was younger, her and her family found two box turtles (I believe ornate box turtles) in the high desert of southwestern Wyoming (which doesn't actually have any native turtle or tortise populations from what I can find, so how they got there is anybody's guess).
She moved away for school and the parents "took care" of the boxies and now they are in bad shape. Now, I generally know better than to accept the responsibility of an animal's well being without actually doing the proper research beforehand, but not all folks share that conviction, and me taking the turts for now was the only way I could guarantee a specialized approach to recovering them would be taken. Here is what I know about their care over the last 1.5 years (from what I remember)
-Intermittant to (as of lately) nonexistant UVB lighting/heat lighting
-No varied diet (some kind of turtle food)
-No supplements
-No temp/RH regulation
-40 gallon breeder aquarium with one small hide
They are still relatively active but are no doubt suffering from these conditions. My question to y'all is three-fold:
1. What can I do immediately to improve the health of these boxies without putting them under too much stress from changes? My plan so far is to get both a UVB bulb and a spot lamp and set up a warm/cool side, replace the substrate (prolly coco husk/sphagnum mixture, I have several gallons of ABG mix from my dart frog days laying around that would work probably), put a few more hides in, and start feeding an actual varied diet.
2. What can I do to get them healthy over a longer period of time? I read that malnourished boxies need to be slowly acclimatized to supplements. What does this look like from a frequency standpoint? How often should I dust? Also, from my dart frog days, I remember that I was a big fan of Repashy supps because they used a form of vitamin A that the frogs could actually process. Is there a similar thing with turtle supps? What sort of supplements am I looking for?
3. Is there a resource for box turtle rescues or something in my local area (SE WY/Northern CO)? Just in case something happens and I decide I'm in over my head.
Thanks everybody,
-JW
