My friend says that he found this tort in his back yard a couple weeks back during our last hard raing. I want to give him a care sheet but I don't know what it is. I was told it MIGHT be an Ornate Box? Is that right?
Please Identify this tortoise
- Thread starter Fernando
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It IS a box turtle, but I sometimes can't tell the difference between the Luteola and the ornata.
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Yes, definitely a box turtle. If this species is native to the area in which it was found, might I recommend releasing it back out into nature? In my experience working for a wildlife rehabilitator, older box turtles used to living in the wild do not do well in captivity AT ALL. Many times they stop eating and/or just fail to thrive. If your friend really wants to keep it, it needs to live outside, in a spacious area, and allowed to hibernate 5-6 months each year. If your friend wants a tort or turtle, there are plenty of them in captivity already, as unwanted pets. I don't want to tell anyone what to do, but please consider it, for the health of the turtle. This is a great opportunity for your friend to maybe rescue a needy pet tortoise from someone who doesn't want it anymore, and let the wild turtle live out his life as intended... ???
No, box turtles aren't indigenous to California. It is probably someone's escaped pet. Did your friend try to find its owner?
emysemys said:
Yeah He asked around his home if anyone was missing a pet and no one has claimed it as of yet.
I wish a turtle would pop up in my back yard!! lol
It's probably a T.o.luteola. They look like T.c.bauri and T.o.ornata but the T.c.bauri and T.o.ornata have different skin colors (usually darker than what you would see here), so my best guess is that it's a desert box turtle. This is just my 0.02. And yes, they're not a native species of turtle.
yep looks like a desert box
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