- Joined
- Apr 10, 2014
- Messages
- 259
Help with ID please!
- Thread starter KatieandKyle
- Start date
Eye bulge is probably a vitamin A deficiency. Carrot baby food in their soaks and some vitamins in their water once a week or so will take care of that as long as he is eating. Get them some sun. The skin issue is because they are to dry, get them in a wet habitat and that will clear right up. The good news and the bad news is that box turtles are very hardy. This is good while they are being rehabed but bad if not done properly as they can live through some horrible things that would make you cry to see. So take good care of them! Look for Petco dollar a gallon sale and get a 40 breeder tank when you can. Until then, the largest tub you can find, length X width not height, will be good for a few more years.
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2014
- Messages
- 259
Do I need to monitor the humidity and temp for these little guys as well?
I think @diamondbp does. He is the La box turtle king. I have some of my tanks you can view. Just click on my user name to find my posts. @terryo has some amazing set ups. I think pretty much everyone on here trys to copy hers and diamondbp's set ups.Oh wow, that is fantastic! Do you have any photos posted so I can try and emulate it?
I don't for box turtles. They are comfortable when you are and just need to go to about 80 - 85 day time to eat and digest. I use a 60 watt normal bulb for this. Night temps down to 60 are good for them and necessary for proper health so no night heat. For humidity I just make sure their "pool" always has water in it and I dump a half gallon or so in every other day to my 40 breeder and about 2 gallons in my 6' x 3' wooden table.
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2014
- Messages
- 259
It appeared that she had a coil bulb hanging in at one point.
All over the carrot baby food soaks, got it handy! There is one thing I got going for them! Lol I feel like a fish out of water with these poor babies! I'll get it down, it was just a surprise yesterday so I am feeling very unprepared! :/
Hopefully this guy from CL will have a nice size tank for me. I baked 6 blocks of coco coir and have a bag of the sphagnum moss ready as soon as I can get a tank going. It's about 8:30 here so I will call at 9 just in case he sleeps in.
The coco coir blocks will hydrate much faster with boiling water. Be very careful though because it retains the heat for hours and you can cook your babies if you put them in too soon. If you can, get lots of leaves from a none poisonous tree and cut them into pieces and cover an entire end of the tank with them. Baby boxies prefer to bury and hide under leaves and bark logs and not so much in hide boxes. That comes later in life. Don't worry about not being ready. When I got my first three I had a carrier cage and some dirt from my yard. Just don't get prepared at a pet store. Home Depot, Lowes or Wal-Mart garden centers are WAY bette for what you will need.
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/box-turtle-care-sheet.93937/#post-910643
Pic of one of @Yvonne G 's baby tubs at the bottom of the thread.
Pic of one of @Yvonne G 's baby tubs at the bottom of the thread.
Last edited:
opps, it sure is. Sorry @Yvonne G. Stamps is doing great by the way!That's Yvonne's, Stephen.
In addition to the boxie hatchling care sheet that I linked on the previous page, this discussion might be helpful for you: http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/boxie-hatchling-care.95351/
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2014
- Messages
- 259
I live in the north Phoenix area. I have two boxies that I adopted from the Phoenix Herpetological Society. Mine are adults, one is a three toed the other an ornate. Anyway when I called about adoption the PHS recommends that they be housed outside. This is the 3rd summer for mine. I have a shallow pond with water on a timer that flows into it 4 times a day keeping it filled and fresh. Not all box turtles are swimmers, some just kinda drift, some just soak, some will sink. Mine both prefer to soak, especially the three toed. I would be very, very careful about how deep the water is. To assume that yours will just go in and start swimming is a dangerous thing to do. They do require lots of moisture. My enclosure is a work in progress as I have learned more and more about them. They have access to a garden area where there are pumpkin vines and other plants that I water once or twice a day. Oh, and one of them loves earthworms, the other meal worms.
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2014
- Messages
- 259
Wow! Good to know! Thank you!
This is the garden area. The ornate prefers to hang out here and hunker under the dirt among the vines to keep cool.
This is the under roof area where the three toed hangs out either in the hide or under a little hibiscus plant. This was a dog kennel that we put a roof on. It looks like a mess because of all the chicken wire. I had to put chicken wire and even smaller mesh around the bottom to try to keep wild critters out. Last year I reached under one of the hides to pull out one of the turtles and instead grabbed something that didn't feel at all like a turtle. Turned out to be a bull snake who spent a good part of the summer during the heat of the day chilling with the turtles. I was just very lucky it wasn't a rattler! I got 4 desert tortoise babies two months ago and so I divided this under roof part in half. The half for the turtles has the pond and a little tunnel going out to the garden.
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2014
- Messages
- 259
The snake part is scary, I'm thankful you didn't get bit!
Your habitat is wonderful! Thank you so much for sharing!
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2012
- Messages
- 2,238
When it's hot out, use the hose or watering can to make a gentle rain. Boxies love rain. Wet down any stone walls or walks that hold the heat. That will increase humidity & cool off the area. And of course wet the soil, provide shade, plants & burrowing.
Air conditioning is terribly drying.
Air conditioning is terribly drying.
The habitat has grown in size. It started out as only the kennel part with the roof which is 5 1/2 ' x 10'. The man from the PHS said that would be fine for two box turtles. I added the garden in spring of 2013. If you get a chance to visit the PHS, do it! There is a fee if you want to tour it, I don't remember how much it is. They have a lot of boxies in a really nice habitat. The herp guy also told me they feed their box turtles, among other things, canned cat food with an ash content of less than 3%. Hearing that will probably make some people on here livid but hey, the herp guy is a professional. I have only found one food that meets that low ash requirement and that's Friskies Special Diet Ocean Whitefish dinner. My three toed likes it a lot. The ornate will sometimes eat it. I have trouble finding a variety of food for them that they will eat. So the cat food is something I offer them about once a week. The ornate is probably eating a variety of stuff from the garden and he loves his meal worms. The three toed doesn't go out in the garden often so I'm more concerned about him getting enough variety. Three toeds do need more humidity though and that's probably why he likes the part with the pond and the roof. The sprinkler sprays down into it 4 times a day for 10 minutes each time which puts a lot of humidity into the air in there.
Check your turtles' back feet. If they have 3 toes, they are three toeds. However, I have read that some three toeds have 4 toes on their back feet. LOL
Oh, and the PHS has a lot of other really neat reptiles. Go when it cools off a bit.
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2014
- Messages
- 259
Temporary housing till I can get their habitat up and proper. Where is the best place for me to purchase the live critters they need to eat??
They look happy! I buy my earthworms and meal worms in Walmart. They have a bait refrigerator.
Similar threads
