Felter, my new 3-toed

I have a confession to make. I incarcerated another wild boxie. But i can EXPLAIN!
On June 11 i was driving to work and there was a little boxie parked in the middle of the dirt road. It was clearly pointing to the west side of the road, so i stopped to transfer him to that side.
I picked him up, our eyes met,

and we realized we were kozmic soul-mates.
(This pic taken today though.)

I strongly felt it would be WRONG to let him go there; that he would LIKE to be my pet. That he would enjoy captivity and being fed by a Food God.
I figured, if it didn't turn out that way, if he was hell-bent on escaping, i could release him again.

In Arkansas there are no laws governing 3-toeds. (Ornates are don't touch.)

So i took him to work, put him in a cardboard box all day, except when i soaked him.

Took him home. At first i put him in a 27-gallon tote with some cypress mulch, pet moss, and the rest of my coir. Dampened. Boring, nothing else in it.
He never dug under it, just stood on top. The first couple days, he did occasionally try to climb out the corners. Every time i noticed that, i would gently pick him up and hold him to the window, to show him the world had not disappeared. He would just contentedly sit in my hands peering out at the trees and flowers, neck extended, until i got bored and put him back.

Then i made a trip to Home Depot and got one of their black 55-gallon totes ($25). BTW when i got it home i realized it was imbued with foul toxic perfume, so i soaked/scrubbed it with non-toxic detergent and aired it out in the sun, which got rid of most of the stench. I'll post some pics of his setup later; a work in progress.
Soon i plan to make him an outdoor habitat.

This time of year i soak my turtles outside a lot. Three-toed boxies are fairly partial to water, and they seem to enjoy just floating all day with their back legs straight back and head in the air.
So i can turn off the CHEs and lights much of the day and also i don't worry about hydration at all.

One has to be careful that the volume of water is large enough not to overheat in the hot sun. I use 150-gallon stock tanks.

(got pics but the forum doesn't let me post more than 1 pic per post anymore, so i will append later.)

Also if you put in an island, you have to keep the island about the same level as the water. My other boxie, Rorg, will jump off a higher rock and land upside-down and be unable to right himself.

Anyway, i totally adore this boxie. He has an unusual name because he is unusual. he has a bad shell split that looks several years old and must have happened when he was pretty small. Did a bird drop him, or did he do some cliff-diving without a parachute? There is some minor damage elsewhere on his shell (see in pic later) which suggests he tumbles down embankments -- which seems to be a trait of these boxies.

Also his eyes look weird. But he seems to have real sharp vision at dinner time. He has not touched his cuttlebone. He likes worms, bugs, and lettuce stems a lot. I have a bunch of lettuce that bolted, so i feed him the stems, which he prefers to the leaves, although he eats some leaf too. He will eat the volume of 2 cigarettes a day in lettuce leaf stems. (pic later)

I have not noticed him eating any of the other leaves i put in there. He may have eaten a couple squash flowers.
He is lukewarm toward raspberries and blackberries. Will slowly eat one sometimes.
He loves tomato. I have fed him 3 tiny marble-sized cherry tomatoes and plan to keep his ration short on that. Also i tried little slivers of mango, kiwi, and apricot, and of course he snarfed these right up.

Urine: on 4 occasions i have noticed that he dumped 2-3 tbs of urine in non-stress situations (he has never peed on me and seems relatively feerless). I don't know what this means, as i thought they normally do not pee. I have seen no urates yet.

One of the weirdest things about him is he doesn't want to hide! I put an "irresistable" cave in his tote, but he would not go in. I saw him pause outside it, sniffing and peering in, but he never went in! I dunno if he had a traumatic experience entering a burrow in the past, or what.
Today i re-vamped his tote, and put in an old plastic mailbox for a larger cave that maybe he'll use. But so far, no interest. he just climbs around or rests in a corner.

Also if i spray him with a mister, he perks right up and walks right into the spray.

He is just such a sweet, well-behaved pet. Seems totally adjusted to the domesticated lifestyle. Never makes noise scrabbling about at night. Never even tries to get out during the day anymore. Yet is very extroverted.
All his turds are about 1.5" long and look like tar, but well-formed with scant odor.

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I am, of course, keeping his stuff sequestered from my other boxie, Rorg. I soak them i separate tubs, too.



Check out the eye and the shell damage.
I always put a welded-wire lid over the soaking turtles, as there are hawks around.



Aha, now i was able to post a 2nd pic. This is a boy, right?



Eating lettuce stem.

Congrats! he is adorable. looks like a boy to me, but also looks youngish ad maybe not old enough for a definite gender reveal..between the tail and the colorful face, i am going to say BOY.

Congrats!

That is quite the shell damage ! He is quite handsome regardless.

Awesome story and great find!

Yeah now, i really wasn't looking to take on another pet. That little (female?) boxie i re-homed recently was prettier and smaller, and i thought about it. But i sensed she really wanted to roam free outdoors, like most of them.
I would let this guy go if he wanted it. But he seems quite content, has great appetite...

Right now he is resting just OUTside the mailbox cave, but not venturing in.

It's extremely hard re-home them, bothers me every time. I think I'm about to do that with a few. I've got too many and now I've got the tort bug with my Sulcata and leopard.. I can tell though that one has got your number, super cool story.

By re-homed i meant i took her away from habitat that was being cleared in town, out to my place in the woods to release her. I didn't know her long. I did like her though.

Gotcha

Now he's devouring cactus pad! I had forgotten about those because i never got Rorg interested in them last year. I have some growing outside.
Probably a tad more nutritious than lettuce stems.

What a great story! And well written the little boxie is lovely. I love it how you described your immediate bonding with him, making eye contact. I totally do that too! We probably sound crazy to some, but you know what? When you get to be my age, you stop paying so much attention to "what some may think of you". I totally believe that all living things are in many ways connected as all are a part of this Universe. I loved reading your story. It's made my day. Thank you

Thanks. Yes, i'm one of those eccentics that believes that turtles, at least most of them, are "spiritually aware" and capable of love.

I believe the whole world around us is full of spiritual awareness. We are just to damn caught up in daily grind to see it

This is how paranoid he isn't:



He has been going into his mailbox hide a little at times (mainly after dark when i still have the ceiling lights on and he apparently wants dark) but this is how he often snoozes. Buries his nose in a corner and sticks his butt out. And the lights are on.
He walked around some after i took this pic, but now he's in almost the exact same position.
I don't think he has any concept of hiding. The nearest house to where i found him parked in the middle of the road has 3 dogs who often hang out in front. They were not out at the time, but had they been, they might have gotten him.
I think i need to keep him protected for his safety.

His favorite veggies are lettuce stalks and Rose of Sharon flowers. He won't touch a cucumber slice or mulberry leaves or althea flowers. He eats a few wild blackberries. Once or twice a week he gets a dinky cherry tomato.
I feed him several earthworms a day. He is strong and robust. And adorable.

He does odd things, my new buddy.
A couple days ago he was soaking in the stock tank. I had a concrete block standing on end to make an island.
I came out and he was completely submerged with his head underwater, hanging out. He had crawled inside the block cavity. I don't know how long he'd been there.
By the time i got my camera his head was poking out of the water:



I had never seen a completely submerged boxie. They (at least 3-toeds) are very buoyant. But i guess they can dig under underwater objects. I don't know how long they can go without a breath.

Looks female based on location of vent area.

Hmm really? How about this one?


This is from a thread at http://www.turtletimes.com/forums/topic/68247-sexing-3-toed-eastern-box-turtles/
but your browser will probably tell you it's a deadly phishing site (seems hard to believe).
The consensus is, this one is a male.

By "vent" i presume you mean where the flatulence exits. This pic is also supposedly of a 3-toe, but the vent is a bit farther, making one more confident it is a male.

Now i can't find the pics i was looking at before, but i thought the female tail looks even less "male" than Felter's.

Is the above photo also of this turtle? If so, then yes it's male. And not sure why it looks so different from the first photo you posted......

What you posted is from the other thread?? Confused here....
A male vent will be past the edge of the shell. A females will not be.

I posted another pic for comparison. I could no longer find one for a female.

Thanks!

This is how this weird animal is choosing to rest this afternoon.

Sorry about the blurriness but i can't take a good pic indoors with poor lighting. And i didn't want to put s spotlight on him. Or her.
I'll probably be calling him a he until he actually lays an egg...

I clipped a few of his nails today. Not too bad. I bought an official cat claw clipper
http://www.allivet.com/images/product/large/7356.jpg
Also i soaked him in warm water for a couple hours, to clear his excretions and soften his nails. Then i waited 1/2 an hour, because my boxies are always hyped up right after a soak, trying to claw out of my grip.
But after 1/2 hour he was mellow and placid and i snipped several claws before he got antsy.