My girl, Friday!

[Edna]

Here she is! I will need suggestions for setting her up. For now she's in a Christmas tree storage tub with forest moss, a big saucer for water, a slate to bask on, and a new MVB.

She measures 5 1/4 inches long with the plastron closed, weighed 620 g. after that first worm. Her plastron is beautiful and smooth, but her carapace is rough. The white that shows between her scutes seems to be latex paint, judging from the way it peels off in the soak water. She has been kept dry for at least the last 6 months. She shed big chunks of skin in the soak water at school.

Gulf Coast boxie?? 3 toed? She does have 3 toes on the hind feet.

Carapace:

Plastron:

Hunting the first worm!

Back end, showing paint

 

[wellington]

Are you serious about it being paint? If you are, who would do that and why glad you got her, lucky girl.

 

[Edna]

Are you serious about it being paint? If you are, who would do that and why glad you got her, lucky girl.

Quite serious. I don't know why someone would do that, but I know a couple of weeks ago a forum member found a Russian that was painted green with orange marginals. People just don't think.

 

[Len B]

She looks almost like the twin (except the white paint) of a female 3 toed that my daughter in law found a few years ago wondering in the back woods at the Maryland house. Where she came from and how she ended up in Maryland is anyone's guess.I think yours is beautiful, a turtle with a lot of history, Don't you wish they could talk? is that a worm in her mouth in the first pic?

 

[bigred]

I had ornate box turtles and they like to hide in something like a bottom layer of sphagnum moss several inches thick with a loose leaf litter on top. If outside when weather permits a piece of plywood with some loose dirt under. Glad you have her

 

[Edna]

Yes, her first live food in at least six months. She had a really hard time getting that first one down, but at this time she has eaten two more and continues to hunt. The woman who gave her to me said she liked fruit, but she seems to "forget" about fruit when there is live food available.

 

[nearpass]

Wow, good for her to have a new home...and live food has to be the best to perk things up. To me, she looks really old, with that worn smooth shell. Wonder what tales she could tell!

 

[terryo]

To me she looks like an old Three Toed. She also has similar coloring of some old Gulf Coast BT's that I've seen too. She is most assuredly in very good hands now.

 

[Edna]

The earthworms have had quite the effect on the old girl. I weighed her again after placing six big worms in her enclosure, and she was 14 grams heavier. Also, this morning when I first met her, and all day at school, she was Miss Congeniality. After her first three worms, her personality made a shift and she's acting like a wild turtle, hissing, hunting, and wary. I liked her when she was docile, but it's really good to see that she has some fight in her!

 

[surie_the_tortoise]

beautiful box turtle. shame someone would do such a bad thing like paint her.

 

[lynnedit]

Incredible. It will be interesting to see what she looks like over the next few months with your care.

 

[Edna]

I appreciate the faith expressed in my ability to care for this girl, but I have to say that she is only my 4th box turtle ever, and my first three arrived the day before I got her! Thread on them to come, no hurry on my end
Anyway, I have a question: Her hind toenails are long and curved. My plan is to trim them enough so that the ends will be in contact with abrasive surfaces (rocks, slate, unglazed terra cotta) when she is walking over abrasive surfaces. Her front nails are non-directional. If this condition is caused by lack of UVB/poor diet/dry conditions, will correcting those thing improve them? What other causal factors do I need to consider?
Another question: What kind of roaches might she like? She's quite the little hunter. Yesterday she seemed uninterested in the meal worm I offered. This morning it took her a while to decide, but she caught one and gobbled it down. So far no interest in Romaine, grapes, or blueberries.

 

[Bibbit]

Interesting looking turtle. I recall as a child, with the encouragement of my parents, if a turtle turned up in the yard, or we found one otherwise, we would catch them, paint their shells pretty colors, and turn them loose. I'm not sure if that was just a southern thing, but it seemed perfectly normal then. I have grown up and the world has moved on so that people should know better than to do such a thing, but I would imagine the paint on this turtle came from someone that has not graduated from days gone by.

Good luck with your new turtles.