So long story short, a year and a half ago my son got a baby box turtle from the pet store. We bought the entire aquarium setup, lights, heat, etc. We followed the care instructions by the store (which is generally a good store with good info), turtle was doing great, but a month ago he was no more. No one is quite exactly sure why, the store says we did everything right. Only thing I can come up with since then is possibly poor air circulation and/or poor lighting.
So, after visiting a reptile expo, talking to some turtle/tortoise rescues, reading a lot online, buying a highly recommended book, and acquiring a couple new baby 3 toe I want you our setup critiqued to tell us if we should change anything.
I mail ordered a couple captive bread 3 toe that were hatched earlier this year. I picked up a concrete mixing pan from Home Depot and set it up as pictured. Under the right third is a heat mat and according to the laser temp that side tends to hover about 80 degrees on the substrate surface.
The light is a ZooMed 10.0 UVB compact fluorescent in a Flukers clamp light.
The rock is actually a fossil we dug up from the fossil bed behind the high school in Fossil, Oregon earlier this year.
We keep it sprayed down and moist. Two humidity gauges show it to be 50% at the very lowest and usually more like 65-70%.
I am thinking they need a little more heat, especially as winter will be coming and keeping the house a little cooler. I am going to order another clamp lamp and some form of heat. I'm not a fan of heat lamps so might get a ceramic heater or something and a thermostat.
For the first week we had them they wouldn't eat. We chopped up veggies and fruit but no luck. I have roaches for my tarantulas but they were way too fast for them to catch. We picked up some meal works at a local pet store and these guys love them. We feed each of them a meal work every day, or every other day. Just now there were 3 on the rock and one of the turtles ate all 3. I was concerned that they wouldn't eat anything else but as I've read they tend to be that way when young. We will gradually start adding veggies in and see if they'll at least pick at it.
These guys tend to do nothing but eat and then burrow. Once burrowed they stay put until we get them out to eat. The appear to like to burrow on the cooler side of the container where it is about 65-70 degrees. Sometimes they only burrow half way so they can still look around. I've never seen them just hang out under the light or do anything other than burrow. Even when we set them in the water they hang out for a few minutes, walk around playing in it, then get out and burrow.
Does anyone have any advice, comments, criticism? Anything we should watch for? Other wiggly food sources to try? Links to order?
Thanks in advance.
So, after visiting a reptile expo, talking to some turtle/tortoise rescues, reading a lot online, buying a highly recommended book, and acquiring a couple new baby 3 toe I want you our setup critiqued to tell us if we should change anything.
I mail ordered a couple captive bread 3 toe that were hatched earlier this year. I picked up a concrete mixing pan from Home Depot and set it up as pictured. Under the right third is a heat mat and according to the laser temp that side tends to hover about 80 degrees on the substrate surface.
The light is a ZooMed 10.0 UVB compact fluorescent in a Flukers clamp light.
The rock is actually a fossil we dug up from the fossil bed behind the high school in Fossil, Oregon earlier this year.
We keep it sprayed down and moist. Two humidity gauges show it to be 50% at the very lowest and usually more like 65-70%.
I am thinking they need a little more heat, especially as winter will be coming and keeping the house a little cooler. I am going to order another clamp lamp and some form of heat. I'm not a fan of heat lamps so might get a ceramic heater or something and a thermostat.
For the first week we had them they wouldn't eat. We chopped up veggies and fruit but no luck. I have roaches for my tarantulas but they were way too fast for them to catch. We picked up some meal works at a local pet store and these guys love them. We feed each of them a meal work every day, or every other day. Just now there were 3 on the rock and one of the turtles ate all 3. I was concerned that they wouldn't eat anything else but as I've read they tend to be that way when young. We will gradually start adding veggies in and see if they'll at least pick at it.
These guys tend to do nothing but eat and then burrow. Once burrowed they stay put until we get them out to eat. The appear to like to burrow on the cooler side of the container where it is about 65-70 degrees. Sometimes they only burrow half way so they can still look around. I've never seen them just hang out under the light or do anything other than burrow. Even when we set them in the water they hang out for a few minutes, walk around playing in it, then get out and burrow.
Does anyone have any advice, comments, criticism? Anything we should watch for? Other wiggly food sources to try? Links to order?
Thanks in advance.