Sammara
New Member
Hi there!
I'm a relatively new Ornate box turtle owner and am looking for some advice. I have had a female Ornate box turtle for about 6ish months now, and I believe she is 2-3 years old. In her first home, the people who had her were raising several box turtles in their backyard. They are unsure what happened to her, whether is was a weed eater, a dog, or something else, but whatever it was took off one of her hind legs when she was still very young. She is missing that leg and a small part of her top shell above it. It has healed completely, and she has no problem moving around. The owner who took care of her after that took her in with the best of intentions, and got her with another tortoise. I don't know if the other tortoise was the same species or anything, but from what I heard it was sick when she got it and did not last very long. She eventually decided that the Ornate box turtle was not the correct animal for her, and wanted to give her a better home. So that is how she ended up with me. It is my understanding that her diet before I took her in was primarily sun dried red shrimp and bananas. She lived in a Rubbermaid tote filled with substrate until I finished building her new home. Due to where I live, and the fact that I have a very big dog as well as many other animals in my back yard I cannot keep her in a safe space outside. I also have limited space inside. To try to give her the space she needs I created a glass and wood box that is 72" long, 12" wide and 12" tall. She has a few inches of ZooMed eco-earth across the entire bottom, as well as a large pile of sphagnum moss on the cooler end of her home. I would like to give her more substrate to burrow but have not been able to make the trip out of the small town to buy more. She has a water dish with a ramp up to it. I'm feeding her ZooMed canned tortoise diet food, along with different leafy greens and occasional fruit. I've been trying to get her to eat another tortoise dry food that is supposed to hep give them vitamins and calcium, but she absolutely refuses to eat it. Even when I hide it inside grapes or bananas! She seems happy, is active and eating well. However, I've noticed some dry peeling skin on her neck and legs. Should I be concerned? I've done research with a lot of conflicting results. I keep the sphagnum moss damp. So, a list of questions:
Should I be worried about the dry skin?
What can I do about her dry skin?
Is there anything else I should be doing to make sure she's happy and healthy? (Heating, diet, substrate, water, habitat, etc etc)
Thanks!
I'm a relatively new Ornate box turtle owner and am looking for some advice. I have had a female Ornate box turtle for about 6ish months now, and I believe she is 2-3 years old. In her first home, the people who had her were raising several box turtles in their backyard. They are unsure what happened to her, whether is was a weed eater, a dog, or something else, but whatever it was took off one of her hind legs when she was still very young. She is missing that leg and a small part of her top shell above it. It has healed completely, and she has no problem moving around. The owner who took care of her after that took her in with the best of intentions, and got her with another tortoise. I don't know if the other tortoise was the same species or anything, but from what I heard it was sick when she got it and did not last very long. She eventually decided that the Ornate box turtle was not the correct animal for her, and wanted to give her a better home. So that is how she ended up with me. It is my understanding that her diet before I took her in was primarily sun dried red shrimp and bananas. She lived in a Rubbermaid tote filled with substrate until I finished building her new home. Due to where I live, and the fact that I have a very big dog as well as many other animals in my back yard I cannot keep her in a safe space outside. I also have limited space inside. To try to give her the space she needs I created a glass and wood box that is 72" long, 12" wide and 12" tall. She has a few inches of ZooMed eco-earth across the entire bottom, as well as a large pile of sphagnum moss on the cooler end of her home. I would like to give her more substrate to burrow but have not been able to make the trip out of the small town to buy more. She has a water dish with a ramp up to it. I'm feeding her ZooMed canned tortoise diet food, along with different leafy greens and occasional fruit. I've been trying to get her to eat another tortoise dry food that is supposed to hep give them vitamins and calcium, but she absolutely refuses to eat it. Even when I hide it inside grapes or bananas! She seems happy, is active and eating well. However, I've noticed some dry peeling skin on her neck and legs. Should I be concerned? I've done research with a lot of conflicting results. I keep the sphagnum moss damp. So, a list of questions:
Should I be worried about the dry skin?
What can I do about her dry skin?
Is there anything else I should be doing to make sure she's happy and healthy? (Heating, diet, substrate, water, habitat, etc etc)
Thanks!