Hello Tortoise and Turtle lovers,
My husband and I have always wanted to keep a turtle and we finally had the chance to get one. We have done a lot of research but still appreciate advice from more experienced box turtle parents! A little bit about our new baby:
Her name is Clementine (due to her orange hues and orange spots on her head). We were told she is a three toed box turtle but I think she is an eastern box turtle after looking at pictures. We believe she is young, her shell is only about 3-4 inches long and she fits in the palm of my (small) hand. She has been rather shy, although we've only had her for a week and a half so I am not entirely worried. She really enjoys burying herself in her substrate, and although we usually have to dig her out, she has come out by herself a couple of times to take a walk around her enclosure. She enjoys eating waxworms and we plan to try her with mealworms this week. We always coat the worms in a calcium powder, although she does have access to a cuttle bone which I read is good as well, and she just noticed it yesterday and has been chomping on it on occasion. I removed the hard part on it as I read it could cause damage to their insides... but I am unsure if that was necessary. Only once I got her to eat some organic romaine lettuce, and I have tried banana and pepper with no luck, so advice on that would be appreciated. We try to handle her once or twice a day for about 5-10 mins, but not too much as I read they don't really like it.
About her enclosure. We decided to start out with the largest reptile terrarium available. It is 32 in x 12 in. We plan to make her a larger outdoor enclosure, but we are from Canada and there is snow on the ground so we can't yet. In the enclosure we have about 3 in deep of substrate (reptile dirt that comes in a dehydrated block that you rehydrate). We have a large basking rock, a water pool, a log hide, and two live plants in pots (a wandering jew and a spider plant). We have two lamps, a heat lamp on one side and a UVB lamp on the other.On the warm side right under the lamp, it gets to about 85 degrees Fahrenheit during the day, and when we turn it off at night it gets down to about 65. We spray and keep the humidity between 60-80%, although it goes down during the day and comes up again at night. All the water we use is treated with reptile aquatize.
Anyways I am excited to join this forum and learn all about turtles. Sorry if I wrote too much but I am new to forums and have no idea how to use them haha. Thanks everybody!
My husband and I have always wanted to keep a turtle and we finally had the chance to get one. We have done a lot of research but still appreciate advice from more experienced box turtle parents! A little bit about our new baby:
Her name is Clementine (due to her orange hues and orange spots on her head). We were told she is a three toed box turtle but I think she is an eastern box turtle after looking at pictures. We believe she is young, her shell is only about 3-4 inches long and she fits in the palm of my (small) hand. She has been rather shy, although we've only had her for a week and a half so I am not entirely worried. She really enjoys burying herself in her substrate, and although we usually have to dig her out, she has come out by herself a couple of times to take a walk around her enclosure. She enjoys eating waxworms and we plan to try her with mealworms this week. We always coat the worms in a calcium powder, although she does have access to a cuttle bone which I read is good as well, and she just noticed it yesterday and has been chomping on it on occasion. I removed the hard part on it as I read it could cause damage to their insides... but I am unsure if that was necessary. Only once I got her to eat some organic romaine lettuce, and I have tried banana and pepper with no luck, so advice on that would be appreciated. We try to handle her once or twice a day for about 5-10 mins, but not too much as I read they don't really like it.
About her enclosure. We decided to start out with the largest reptile terrarium available. It is 32 in x 12 in. We plan to make her a larger outdoor enclosure, but we are from Canada and there is snow on the ground so we can't yet. In the enclosure we have about 3 in deep of substrate (reptile dirt that comes in a dehydrated block that you rehydrate). We have a large basking rock, a water pool, a log hide, and two live plants in pots (a wandering jew and a spider plant). We have two lamps, a heat lamp on one side and a UVB lamp on the other.On the warm side right under the lamp, it gets to about 85 degrees Fahrenheit during the day, and when we turn it off at night it gets down to about 65. We spray and keep the humidity between 60-80%, although it goes down during the day and comes up again at night. All the water we use is treated with reptile aquatize.
Anyways I am excited to join this forum and learn all about turtles. Sorry if I wrote too much but I am new to forums and have no idea how to use them haha. Thanks everybody!