I know they would eat them, but can they digest them? They seem to have a hard exoskeleton. Could it cause an impaction in the turtle? Would the beetle's mandibles (claw-like jaws) bite or snare the turtle from the inside as it's going down...same for the spikes on the legs?
I hibernate my box turtle in a large, deep plastic container with a lid (with small holes drilled in the side, top and bottom), full of shredded leaves. I have a bilco door in my basement, and a wood door leading to it in the basement, so I put the container with the turtle in there. If it gets...
He gets as varied a diet that can be given to a picky eater. What about wild caught grasshoppers, locusts (not cicadas), wild caught crickets, etc to feed as part of the insect portion of the diet? The only insect foods I can get commercially are the house crickets, mealworms, and Canadian...
I just found what looks to be a "Longhorned Wood Boring Beetle" flying around the light at night. So I caught it thinking it would be a good morsel for the box turtle. I haven't fed it to him yet. Would it be safe to feed it to the box turtle? The thing bites hard when you pick it up and has a...
I have half of an overripe, mushy cantaloupe which is nearing the point of rotting. It is slimy and mushy and is defintely not something I would eat, but would it be safe to feed it to the box turtle? How far gone is too far when feeding overripe fruits to boxies? Can they eat fully rotting...
Yes it is hardware cloth. I don't know why they call it that because it has no resemblance to "cloth". The chicken wire that I had been using for the past 5 years was also galvanized, and was in contact with the dirt and it rusted out completely. I also have galvanized chicken wire on top of the...
Thank you for your replies. I have another issue that has come up. While getting the outdoor enclosure ready for the turtle, I noticed that the chicken wire on the floor of the enclosure was severly rusted and breaking up and posed a choking/impaction/foot injury hazard for the turtle. Pieces of...
When I got my box turtle 5 years ago, I built an outdoor pen out of cedar for housing him outside during the summer months. I have been housing him outside in that pen every year since during the warm months and inside during the winter.
But now I am reading more about how cedar is toxic to...