Recent content by mark1

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    California declared mojave desert tortoise endangered!

    disease could be one reason , captive to wild is risky........ they had a problem with western pond turtles they may attribute to "head start" programs ..... a particular kind of shell fungus seen only in captive turtles has been found in wild western pond turtles.....
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    California declared mojave desert tortoise endangered!

    i believe ravens would be included under the invasive species problem, they would be considered a "native invasive species" because of their population increase ........which is said to be due to the increase in people , ravens are smarter than smart..... people provide year round water, food ...
  3. M

    Small backyard turtle pond help…

    how easily can they access the surface ? we had an unusually mild winter, possibly if the water is not cold enough they may have needed to breathe some air , they may have been too lethargic to swim to the surface..... when they're cold sometimes even a hard climb to the surface is too much ...
  4. M

    UV index and tortoise outdoor enclousure

    on full sun days in february here , it'd be 15F outside , and i'd be opening the doors to keep it from getting to HOT inside..... when the sun goes down the temps plummet, you need to use objects of some type to somewhat stabilize the temperature at night.... i use the ground, rocks/boulders...
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    UV index and tortoise outdoor enclousure

    by a raised bed i meant added soil in a frame ,on top of the natural ground....... the substrate temperatures in an enclosure off the ground are way too erratic .... as long as the ground is near 60 at the surface , it'd be fine , they'd use the sun to heat up beyond that..... dig down a...
  6. M

    Baby Box Turtle

    your box turtle is in rough shape , natural daylight and getting her to eat some kind of quality commercial pellets, keeping her in a wetter environment might help....... i feed my box turtles soaked hikari cichlid gold , worms , beef liver, bugs, fruit, sweet potatoes, bil jac frozen dog...
  7. M

    UV index and tortoise outdoor enclousure

    my thought would be to put a mercury vapor light on a timer in their pen...... i use them outside in the fall and spring...... the ground temperature is a big deal, they get a lot of their heat from the ground.... a raised bed may help, just don't let them hibernate in a raised bed .....
  8. M

    Baby Box Turtle

    i wouldn't worry about eating veggies, feed live bugs, worms, soaked/softened fish or turtle pellets, strawberries, blueberries, apples, pears............ how wet is the enclosure? baby box turtles need kept in a really wet environment, too dry can kill them.......outside is optimum, i suppose...
  9. M

    New Box Turtle Enclosure

    i'd suggest an electric fence/wires....... trees in the enclosure can be an issue if they are able to move from tree to tree.....
  10. M

    Solar Eclipse

    my job is in cleveland on the lake, we are closing that day due to the expected traffic........ our local weather says the cloud cover should clear out by noon.....
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    Solar Eclipse

    i read one time, the odds of any of this randomly happening is about the same as an oxford english dictionary resulting from a print shop explosion......
  12. M

    EBT Vegetation

    blueberries , strawberries , mushrooms ......i've seen quite a few box turtles when morel's are in season , i believe they'll eat just about any kind of mushrooms, even poisonous ones..... apple trees, mulberry trees and pear trees .....
  13. M

    Rounded bottom of Box Turtle shell

    lots of folks raise young box turtles in water ...... i raise them in soaking wet sphagnum moss,.......i've seen them brumate under water.....
  14. M

    Rounded bottom of Box Turtle shell

    dry???? box turtles, especially young box turtles don't do well in "dry"
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    Newbie turtle owner help

    i agree...... i've always used sphagnum moss , never had a problem...... my outside pens are all full of moss , i've never seen one eat it ..... sphagnum moss is edible, i believe it has 0 nutritional value, just not something they eat....
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