Desert Box Turtles

Neal

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I took some time off this week just to hang out at home and get some miscellaneous chores done.

Cleaned out the Desert Box Turtle pen and turned over dirt in preparation for hibernation time. They seemed to be appreciative and anxious to explore their cleaned home.

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KevinGG

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Nice. I've always been close to getting some of these. If I ever find babies from adults with those especially green heads, I think I'll pull the trigger. Nice job.
 

Neal

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I've got limited experience, but I love this subspecies Neal. What are their personalities like?

Are you getting babies from them?

Their personalities are similar to other NA box turtles, but the aggression is on a completely different scale. The males are just down right mean to each other and the females. Even I've been bitten a couple of times. Otherwise, they're very animated with quick jerky movements and it can be a lot of fun just to sit and watch them.

No babies. These are from multi-generational captive adults, and from what I understand, the original owner started with just a single pair over 20 years ago. These are likely inbred from inbred and might be sterile. They mate a lot though and are all beefy and outwardly healthy, so after two years with them I am thinking they're sterile.
 

mark1

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very cool turtles .... I wouldn't give up on breeding them , having bred dogs for most of my life , from what I've seen , sterility from inbreeding is a long way down the road , lots of bad genetic things happen from inbreeding before sterility , I've actually never seen a sterile dog I would attribute solely to inbreeding .... anythings possible but I doubt those turtles could be inbred enough to cause them to be sterile .....
 

Neal

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very cool turtles .... I wouldn't give up on breeding them , having bred dogs for most of my life , from what I've seen , sterility from inbreeding is a long way down the road , lots of bad genetic things happen from inbreeding before sterility , I've actually never seen a sterile dog I would attribute solely to inbreeding .... anythings possible but I doubt those turtles could be inbred enough to cause them to be sterile .....

Yeah, I'm really not sure how plausible it is that they would be sterile. It seems a reasonable cause though, but who knows. My history with box turtles is that it has taken about an average of two years for them to be established in their new home before any breeding begins. I don't know how that would apply to this group being that they are local captive bred specimens, but we'll see what the future holds. They are fun to have around either way.
 

Neal

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Any math wizards out there? I'd like to know the odds that I would be talking about how I thought these turtles were sterile and less than an hour later I came across these:

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@Tom Here you go. These are very small, like candy eggs, but I'll incubate them all the same.
 

KevinGG

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Any math wizards out there? I'd like to know the odds that I would be talking about how I thought these turtles were sterile and less than an hour later I came across these:

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@Tom Here you go. These are very small, like candy eggs, but I'll incubate them all the same.

Haha! That's amazing! If they hatch, you know where to sell em:)
 

Tom

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Any math wizards out there? I'd like to know the odds that I would be talking about how I thought these turtles were sterile and less than an hour later I came across these:

View attachment 217197

@Tom Here you go. These are very small, like candy eggs, but I'll incubate them all the same.

Gotta start somewhere!

If those hatch, I don't want to see any pics, and I don't want you to bring them to TTPG and offer ether to me for sale!

Your killing me Neal. This is one of those that I've always wanted to get into, but never made the time to do it...
 

Yvonne G

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(Just so you know. . . I sent 4 hatchling luteola home with Will a couple weeks ago to sell)
 

Neal

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Gotta start somewhere!

If those hatch, I don't want to see any pics, and I don't want you to bring them to TTPG and offer ether to me for sale!

Your killing me Neal. This is one of those that I've always wanted to get into, but never made the time to do it...

You aught to look into it more seriously. They're fun and easy, very similar to Russians. Should do pretty well in your area.
 

Tom

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I hate to be getting animals only because of their color, but I just love those pistachio heads.

It took about one full second for me to figure out what a pistachio head was! AWESOME! That is one of the features that draws me to them too. Just like my Black Hats!

Sorry for the tangent Neal…

No, but I'll take some tomorrow. They're not very colorful.
Neal's luteola pics are showing some nice color. Are yours less colorful? I can't remember seeing them. We looked at your 3 toed box turtles a lot because I was trying to tell if that's what my Tommy turtle was so many years ago, but I can't remember seeing your luteola. Maybe my mind was just fried after the drive...
 

Neal

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Neal's luteola pics are showing some nice color. Are yours less colorful? I can't remember seeing them. We looked at your 3 toed box turtles a lot because I was trying to tell if that's what my Tommy turtle was so many years ago, but I can't remember seeing your luteola. Maybe my mind was just fried after the drive...

Do you have a picture of your old box turtle that you could scan and post?

The eggs have quite a bit of veins showing. I'd be really surprised if these hatch out, they are going to be tiny babies. If development progresses at normal, these should be hatched out around TTPG Conference time.
 
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Neal

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That is a tough one.

You can rule out Ornata and
Luteola. There's just no way it could be with that shell color, high dome and overall shape. I'd put money on that bet.

It has to be a Carolina.

I don't know much about the box turtle pet trade back then, but I don't think Gulf Coasts were ever regularly available, although some must have slipped in. If it were, I would expect it be larger, so I think you can rule that out.

I see a lot more 3-toed characteristics than any other type in all of the photos except the second one. That profile looks all eastern. I've seen plenty of easterns with that shell color and lack of pattern, so that is a very strong possibility.

I'll stare at it some more, but right now I'm 50/50 on 3-toed and eastern.

Fun game!
 

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