spring 2023

mark1

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ohio
feels like an early spring is beginning , the strength of the sun is apparent , it has awaken some of the wood turtles i haven't seen since last november...this sure felt like one of our warmest winters , but the ground is surprisingly still pretty cold for the mild winter we had ........the ground temp is actually pretty much normal for this time of year, seems like the only difference the warm winter made was the ground never got that cold ......

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this little guy will be 10yrs this summer, thanks to a good veterinarian ...........

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SinLA

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Tortoise Club
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We finally have some nice weather. Ground is soooooo green because of all the rain. It wont be long before it’s hot and everything is brown again!
 

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mark1

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looks like an early spring .... the blanding's turtles i see all year round , they are extremely cold tolerant ..... the wood turtles i see second , i've seen all but 2 wood turtles this year , i seen 2 new ones today i've not seen .... i've seen no box turtles yet , seeing them before the end april beginning of may would for sure be a sign of an early spring .....
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mark1

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Nice pics! In Ohio do wood turtles need to be pit tagged, and are they considered "native"?
they are considered native , all the regulations for keeping native turtles apply ........
 

mark1

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we got a 76F day last week , a few box turtles came up, then the cold came back , we got down to 28F a couple days ago , but it's been sunny , the sun getting pretty strong , the days get up into the 40's low 50's....... next week looks like consecutive mid 70's ..... i'll be digging up all the box turtles....

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Jen A

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Beauties! How deep do you keep the water for them? Do you keep any spotteds with them? And do you do any sort of yearly deworming after hibernation? I have a pair of my spotteds back after a several year break from keeping turtles to raise my little children, and I am trying to get back into the swing of things. I'd love to put them out into the turtle enclosure we built, but they seem a little light. I have a vet visit scheduled for next week and hoping they are healthy and just need a bit of time to adjust. They were overwintered in a basement from what I was told. Thanks for your any advice.
 

mark1

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i do not have spotteds , i do believe they are as cold tolerant as the blandings , possibly even more so ...... they just need to hibernate deep enough they do not become frozen , i see them hibernate in water 6 inches to 2 feet deep , the ponds here are really small, 100-250 gallons at most , additionally they are divided into small pools , some holding no more than 60-90 gallons of water ........ the ponds are in the ground , with lots of large rocks to help stabilize the temp swings ...... i now cover all the ponds with plastic around thanksgiving ...... snow getting in the pond will cause extensive freezing , i had a couple scary thick freezes before i started covering the ponds to keep the snow out ..... now that i cover them the worst they seem to get frozen is no more than a quarter-half inch of ice , and there is always a lot of open spots where the water is moving ........... my whole objective anymore is to keep them from freezing too thick, keeping some ice free spots, and minimizing the temp swings ...... i do use one 250 watt de-icer in each pond , they're on a thermostat so they don't come on when the air temp is over 40F , the de-icers do have their own internal thermostat but i've seen them on when the temps are in the 50's ...... shade and sun affect water temp swings , full sun ponds experience bigger temp swings ....

i cover the ponds using pvc conduit , zip ties , metal rods in the ground , and drilled holes in the wood , and 20'x100' roll plastic , the plastic last about 3 yrs before it becomes brittle ......
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Jen A

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Thank you. That's brilliant. I wondered how much water the blandings and woods need and whether a few of them would do well in a small community pond with the spotteds of 200-250 gallons with some land. Good to know the de-icers are not totally reliable. Our little pen has a heavy wire lid due to large raccoon populations in the area, so putting some plastic over would be a simple matter.
 

mark1

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warmest winter i've ever experienced , the spring has been cold and wet , we've had snow twice in the last 2 weeks , after getting a couple weeks of 70-80 degrees ......... the temperature swings this winter were over the top , we had a lot of 40-50 degree temperature swings over a 12-24 hr periods this winter ....... most of the large temperature swings involved clear skies , sunny days and cold clear night ..........i found it quite educational in how temperate species deal with extremely inconsistent temperatures ........
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first box turtle i got he's hibernated here over 20 seasons

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found this ,i'm assuming, guy in october 4yrs ago

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