My 5 turtles.

[turtlemann2]

hybridization does occur however infrequently as ornates inhabit grasslands while three toed s inhabit woodlands. but their ranges overlaps and I'm sure at watering hole hibernation habitat all provide time to interact and mate.

what isn't known is if the hybrids are fertile as they are different species and not simply different sub species such as the the three toed gulf coast Florida all being sub species of the eastern box turtle

Thats what I was wondering. I dont mind natural intergrade or hybrids that are sterile.

Have there even been hybrid turtles that are sterile?

that's one of the few things I don't know, would be interesting to find out though.

Those hybrid shell looks cool nice sttups also.u should get a north American black woody and mate it with the ornate.great settups you really love and take care of them well.I love blackwood turtles so cool the ornate woods are second.if you live near Jersey I have some free eastern hatchling up for adoption in spring.

a wood turtle and an ornate cannot mate and produce fertile eggs, they are of different species similar to a monkey mating with a lemar...

All of my turtles are random rescues and as such I try not to let them breed ( don't know genetics or any underlying health conditions) though baby turtles are adorable!
Here's questions for everyone. In a 9'x3' enclosure how many box turtles can be in there? At what size can they be sexed? Why isn't Moe (baby ornate) growing?

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Also as much as I would love to take you up on your offer I live in Az.

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in a nine foot by the foot all five adults should be good. what you want to shy away from is having more then 2 or 3 males as they can be aggressive. I've had very few problems with excess females

Box turtles grow at different rates you might have a late bloomer, as long as he's eating and active I would not worry about size and age. 9x3 is very big and could house hatchlings for awhile, adults tend to pace a lot so the More room the better, 9x3 is a very good size tho for now

I agree as far as heavy plantings sight obstructions and plenty of hides

 

[Thalatte]

Thank you for the info it was much appreciated. I will work on putting some plants in the enclosure then. If I have more than one male they will be separated so that won't be an issue.

 

[Thalatte]

Caught the hatchlings eatin huge earthworms.







Also made some turtle soup earlier...








Look at the size differences! Meanie, the lightest colored one, used to be the largest. Now him and Eanie are about the same size! And poor little moe, the ornate, was bigger than Eanie when we got the three and now he is soo tiny.
Pretty soon Eanie and meanie will be in the adult enclosure and little moe will still be in the hatchling set up all by himself.

 

[turtlemann2]

Uhhhhhh Turtle soup anyone? lol