I found a tortoise

[Both of us]

Me and my brother found a tortoise sitting still in the middle of the road. We took it to two pet stores and neither are sure of the species. One suggested that we should be able to keep it outside in a small enclosure and feed it mealworms and romaine lettuce which we then bought. We made a small outdoor enclosure from bricks and rocks next to the back porch and is grassy with large weeds that the tortoise seems to like hiding in and have given him a small tray of water as well as some slices of apple with meal worms spread around the enclosure. It recieves a few hours of direct sunlight a day and is in light shade for most of the time. The temperatures here (North Alabama) are currently in the 80's at day and 60's at night. We just found the tortoise today. One of the workers at one of the pet stores mentioned that the tortoise looked too thin which is why we have given it much food in its enclosure. Here is also a picture. The pets we have are an adult cat, a red eared slider turtle, a plecostomus catfish, and many carnivorous plants, but we have never taken care of a tortoise before and are therefore unsure of its living requirements. We also don't think that this tortoise is native to North Alabama and thus are reluctant to release it back into the wild. Thank you for any help you can give us.

 

[ascott]

Me and my brother found a tortoise sitting still in the middle of the road. We took it to two pet stores and neither are sure of the species. One suggested that we should be able to keep it outside in a small enclosure and feed it mealworms and romaine lettuce which we then bought. We made a small outdoor enclosure from bricks and rocks next to the back porch and is grassy with large weeds that the tortoise seems to like hiding in and have given him a small tray of water as well as some slices of apple with meal worms spread around the enclosure. It recieves a few hours of direct sunlight a day and is in light shade for most of the time. The temperatures here (North Alabama) are currently in the 80's at day and 60's at night. We just found the tortoise today. One of the workers at one of the pet stores mentioned that the tortoise looked too thin which is why we have given it much food in its enclosure. Here is also a picture. The pets we have are an adult cat, a red eared slider turtle, a plecostomus catfish, and many carnivorous plants, but we have never taken care of a tortoise before and are therefore unsure of its living requirements. We also don't think that this tortoise is native to North Alabama and thus are reluctant to release it back into the wild. Thank you for any help you can give us.

Looks like some type of box turtle...perhaps an eastern box turtle...I would suspect it was wild due to the shell...but see what the others have to offer..

 

[wellington]

Yep a Box turtle. Not sure what kind. But if it's native to your area you need to bring it back where you found it and put it into the grassy area but pretty far off the road.

 

[SarahChelonoidis]

This website (not sure if credible) says:

• "It shall be unlawful to collect or offer for sale sell or trade for anything of value any box turtle (Terrapene Carolina), box turtle part or reproductive product except by permit"

 

[cyan]

That is an eastern box turtle, which IS native to Alabama. Also, the way you have those bricks arranged it will probably climb out of that small enclosure in no time. I would take it back to the area you found it and let it go.

 

[Both of us]

We thought it was a tortoise. We thought it was some tropical special turtle because it didn't resemble any tortoise that lives in Alabama (which is the gopher tortoise). Now that we know what it is, we will either release it into the wild or attempt to house it in a slightly larger outdoor enclosure with more water.

 

[johnsonnboswell]

Please release it where you found it, but help it across the road. When you keep a wild turtle, you take it out of the breeding population. The population isn't losing only one, it's losing the generations that would follow for the next eighty years or more.

Wild caught turtles often don't adapt well to captivity. We try to give them a good diet, but we can't give them what they'd find in the wild. They try to hibernate, but if we can't give them the right set up and preparation, they die. They know where the right spots are, we don't. Sometimes our best isn't good enough. Often it's not good enough in the case of a recently wild caught turtle.

Pet stores give terrible advice. A small habitat and a limited diet cannot replace a habitat that extends for miles with everything in it in season.

You are so lucky to live in a place where habitat destruction and over collecting have not destroyed the native population.

Box turtles are so charming, it's certainly tempting to keep one, but please don't. Maybe you can get an unreleasable one that can't live in the wild. Or learn all you can and rescue any that need you. This one doesn't.

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Hello there and thank you so much for coming to Tortoise Forum for advice.
Please put the lovely turtle back in a safe spot near where you found it.
It will probably die if you keep it.

 

[Angel Carrion]

What everyone said about returning the turtle to where you found him/her is correct. But you will need to return him/her to relatively the exact place you found him/her. Whichever way he/she was crossing the road in the direction of is the side of the road you will want to leave him/her on, but a few hundred yards away from the road.
Turtles have a "homing" beacon and will attempt to get back to their home range. If you leave him/her in some random woods/meadow away from where you found her/him, they will do everything they can to get back to their home range. Chances are the turtle will die in this attempt.
You did good by removing her/him off the road. You did good bringing your concerns here. You can do better by putting her/him back where you found her/him.
Eastern box turtles are protected because of them being in heavy decline in the wild.

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi "Both", and welcome to the Forum!

I agree with what's been said above. Please make the sides of the little habitat straight up and down. Box turtles are very good climbers and that one will be out of there in a flash by climbing on one brick to reach the top of another.

When a box turtle is removed from the wild (which this one has been) that means the gene pool has been denied and fewer box turtles will be in the wild. A female box turtle will lay 3 to 8 eggs every time she nests. She can nest several times a year, (but usually only once) so a box turtle may lay anywhere from 6 to 20 eggs in a year depending on the resources available. Over the course of her life time (25 to 30 years in the wild) she can lay hundreds of eggs, although only two or three of her offspring will survive to adult hood. It is almost critical for the species to keep as many wild turtles in the population as possible. Please put the turtle back where you found it, safely away from the road.

 

[domalle]

Me and my brother found a tortoise sitting still in the middle of the road. We took it to two pet stores and neither are sure of the species. One suggested that we should be able to keep it outside in a small enclosure and feed it mealworms and romaine lettuce which we then bought. We made a small outdoor enclosure from bricks and rocks next to the back porch and is grassy with large weeds that the tortoise seems to like hiding in and have given him a small tray of water as well as some slices of apple with meal worms spread around the enclosure. It recieves a few hours of direct sunlight a day and is in light shade for most of the time. The temperatures here (North Alabama) are currently in the 80's at day and 60's at night. We just found the tortoise today. One of the workers at one of the pet stores mentioned that the tortoise looked too thin which is why we have given it much food in its enclosure. Here is also a picture. The pets we have are an adult cat, a red eared slider turtle, a plecostomus catfish, and many carnivorous plants, but we have never taken care of a tortoise before and are therefore unsure of its living requirements. We also don't think that this tortoise is native to North Alabama and thus are reluctant to release it back into the wild. Thank you for any help you can give us.

What an exciting find for you and your brother! And what a pretty little eastern box turtle. It isn't too thin. It is a beautiful specimen in perfect health.
Congratulations!

 

[TMartin510]

Alabama is an absolutely beautiful state, I would have to agree with everyone else, the turtle will probably be much happier in his/her habitat. I have family up there and I've been to alabama every year of my life pretty much.

 

[TMartin510]

I know it's an awesome turtle but you saved it from being hit by any cars, and you can save it even more by helping him/her out by taking the turtle home.
And then if you still want a turtle or tort you can save one from a local pet store that may not house them right! That would be a really good deed.

 

[Gillian M]

A very warm welcome to the forum.

 

[Both of us]

As of 7:20 PM today the turtle has been placed back into nature. The road where it was found is not near any natural bodies of water so we took it to the closest one we knew about and had access to, the creek behind our house. A little ways from our house is a dense forest with a small portion of a creek sticking out of the edge with both ends leading in opposite directions back into the woods. We didn't want to trek through the woods to see if we can find naturally occuring populations of eastern box turtles in the creek so we just placed it in a shallow portion where the water went halfway up the shell. We know there is life in this creek because many small fish and dragonflies can be seen there in the summer and last spring we saw and held a baby snapping turtle (which we left in the creek). Even if there are no box turtles occuring in the creek, at least this is closure to a natural environment than we could have provided. Hopefully tommorrow it will have travelled on and if there are any more problems I will report back here. Thank you all for your wonderful advice.

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

The box turtle is a terrestrial turtle, not a water turtle.
It can deal with a bit of water but if the water is deep it may drown if it enters it.
It will try to get back to where you got it from and may perish in the attempt.
This is why more than half a dozen of us advised you to take it back where you found it.
Please try to find it again and return it home tomorrow if you can.

 

[SarahChelonoidis]

Tidgy's Dad beat me too it before my message was typed. I don't mean to sound condescending, but you know they aren't aquatic turtles, right? They can swim, but they are woodland dwellers, not creek dwellers.

 

[Both of us]

Shallow water ! I placed it at the edge of the creek and the water is low at this time of year so the deepest part of the creek that I could see was still not shallow enough for the turtle to be completely submerged. Besides, after further research I find that the closest natural body of water is the creek near my house. The turtle probably occures naturally deeper down in the forest somewhere and it is too late and dark in my opinion to go find the turtle and search for where other turtles of the same type might be living. If it is still there tommorrow then I will carry the turtle deeper in the forest. I read that the eastern box turtle likes to bathe in shallow water which is why I placed it in a shallow creek.

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

OK, you found it near to your house ?
On the road by where you live ?

 

[SarahChelonoidis]

It's probably a kindness that you didn't find another box turtle to place this one near, as you'd effectively been introducing a stranger to someone else's home territory. They're not like pond turtles that you very commonly see basking together in large groups on a log. They live more solitary lives.