Baby eastern boxie flipped over!

[WallieTheTortoise]

I fed my baby around 12pm and went out for a couple of hours. I came back home around 3:30pm to drop off some bags, went in to check on Pepper and found her upside down right under the heat lamp!! OMG thank god she was okay. She was so scared though and ran away from me. I put her in her water dish to rehydrate her just in case she was dehydrated...

 

[ascott]

what an ugly feeling that must have been.....so glad she is aok

 

[Saloli]

try putting substrate that makes it easier to right it's body ora log it can push off of

 

[WallieTheTortoise]

try putting substrate that makes it easier to right it's body ora log it can push off of

Like what? I'm using coco fiber

 

[AnthonyC]

Oh man that could've potentially been catastrophic! Good catch!! Glad Pepper's okay! Phew!

 

[yagyujubei]

This doesn't happen very often with box turtles, though I found one of my hatchlings unable to right itself because it flipped over in sticky mud, and was sort of glued upside down. I have since added oak leaves to the substrate, have had no more incidents, but can never find the hatchlings now.

 

[SailingMystic]

I found that placing tall rocks about 4 and seven inches from the water dish is helping. Very scary!!
My Herbie is leveraging her shell off the sides-- they are like little ice bergs--- bottom fat so they won't move when they use them to push off of them. just a thought..

 

[african cake queen]

hi, thats a shame, glad the baby is ok.

 

[WallieTheTortoise]

Thanks for the input guys; in one of my old threads you can see the food dish. I'm going to get a more shallow one today. I usually wait for her to finish eating then i take it out right away, but I had to go out

 

[DesertGrandma]

How scary that must have been...so glad it turned out good.

 

[Torty Mom]

I have 4 babies and that is exactly why mine went to a tortie sitter (Lisa nascarmw) when I was at work. I was kinda of a pain to march everything across the street at 6:30 am, but sooo worth it. I never worried I would come home to a nightmare. Plus Lisa loved taking care of the babies!

Glad Pepper is ok!! What a relief!!!

 

[jackrat]

Glad it turned out for the best.

 

[Olivia]

I have rocks in my enclosure just for that reason. I didn't add them until I read something similar. Glad everything is ok.

 

[Saloli]

oh okay thats good kind of odd though for the baby to get stuck on that i was thinking you had bark.......

 

[dmarcus]

So glad she is okay....

 

[terryo]

Lucky you found her when you did. It takes no time for these little guys to dehydrate. I try to keep everything flat in the vivarium. A flat feeding stone...maybe a piece of tile or slate. Push your water dish down into the substrate so there's no edge for them to climb over.