Hello, Ian, and a very warm welcome to Tortoise Forum.
Thanks for coming here and listening to all the good advice.
Good luck to you and the turtle.
Thanks for coming here and listening to all the good advice.
Good luck to you and the turtle.
The only turtles native to the PNW are Pacific Pond Turtles and Western Painted turtles, and both are threatened species because of RES and loss of habitat. You have an Eastern box turtle native to the North East and Midwest (not sure about the Mid West). They eat fruit, worms, crickets, most bugs actually, berries, cantaloupe and that's all I can think of right now. Your guy has an awfully long beak, it may be hard for him to eat. But he'd LOVE some night crawlers....3 should do it...
Haha sorry, that's my copy and paste quick run down of eastern box turtles I typed up a couple days ago so that I didn't have to keep re-typing it over and over again. It's getting more use than I thought....Whoa Angel, Thanks for the detailed response! I will try my best to follow your guidelines, but hope that the owner will contact us soon. If not, we will certainly implement your box turtle guidelines.
While that is true of 3toeds and Easterns, 3toeds do not have that type of pattern on their shells. Typically, they are pattern-less, but sometimes have a very mute pattern that tends to resemble that of an ornate box turtle, not an eastern (though typically that happens when ornates and 3toeds interbreed since their native territories overlap in places. Not every patterned 3toed is a hybrid, but the possibility of hybridization is possible).Besides the muted colors, I hesitated to identify it definitively because:
while it is definitely an Eastern Box Turtle, Terrapene carolina carolina, it could also be a Three-toed Box Turtle, Terrapene carolina triunguis.
As you will note from the generic label, the Three-toed Box is a form of Eastern Box that occurs in the Midwest.
She looks to be an adult (possibly an older adult) so her surviving in your very dry area for a month is because of her age. If she were a hatchling, she wouldn't have survived. I don't believe a young juvenile would have survived, either.Good call Angel, we won't post pictures and make sure the owner can describe. We will also direct them to this site. If the owner is the one who posted signs around the neighborhood, this turtle has been surviving for at least a month in a very dry and hot (for the NW) summer, with no real water sources. I will try to get her to soak in some water. She loved the blackberries we gave her, and I will try to track down something this evening from the "animal" food source list you gave.
While that is true of 3toeds and Easterns, 3toeds do not have that type of pattern on their shells. Typically, they are pattern-less, but sometimes have a very mute pattern that tends to resemble that of an ornate box turtle, not an eastern (though typically that happens when ornates and 3toeds interbreed since their native territories overlap in places. Not every patterned 3toed is a hybrid, but the possibility of hybridization is possible).
3toeds tend to have an olive-colored shell of varying shades of dark/light-ness. Easterns tend to have brown/black shells with a couple different pattern options that are similar to each other. There is sunburst, bear claw, Phoenix, and at least one other I cannot think of at the moment. While hard to tell because of the "sunburn" (putting in quotes because I'm not sure that's what caused it, but sure looks like it), it appears as though maybe she has a Phoenix pattern on her carapace scutes. I could be wrong.
When I say sunburn I don't actually mean sunburn. It's just the best descriptive word I have. I do know they can be burned by being too close to a heat lamp.Box turtles don't get sunburn, especially not in Washington state. You may find that a good mvb light changes the coloring somewhat, or this is an old animal with muted coloring.
Your Tickles is adorable, FYI.Hello fellow Washingtonion! I'm in the Tri-Cities and run a a rescue called Northwest Tortoise and raise Eastern Box Turtles as well. All the advice you've gotten here is fantastic! If there is anything I can help with 'locally' (across the state is not quite local but you get the idea!), please don't hesitate to ask.
Welcome to turtle ownership!
Hello fellow Washingtonion! I'm in the Tri-Cities and run a a rescue called Northwest Tortoise and raise Eastern Box Turtles as well. All the advice you've gotten here is fantastic! If there is anything I can help with 'locally' (across the state is not quite local but you get the idea!), please don't hesitate to ask.
Welcome to turtle ownership!
A regular vet should be able to manage the nail trim without any problem, but personally I wouldn't trust one with even the most basic check up unless they kept tortoises themselves. Ordinary vets generally know nothing at all about torts and will look at the net or old books and offer outdated information.
i'd find a specialist, if you want a check up done properly.