Jason06
New Member
Ok, I might be worried about nothing, but I figured it's better to be too concerned than not concerned enough. I have a Florida box turtle who's just over a year old. The possible issue here is that I've noticed her shell does not seem to be as highly domed as it used to be. Nothing about the shell looks deformed (no pyramiding or metabolic bone disease that I can tell) it just doesn't seem as highly domed as it used to be. Someone also told me that female box turtles tend to have more highly domed shells than males, so I've been a little concerned.
My turtle's in a 75 gallon coconut coir/peat moss bio-active terrarium with a basking site in the low 90s. She has plenty of places to burrow and hide, as well as a water bowl to swim in and live plants to forage from. The only thing I can think of as a possible cause if this is an issue is that over the last few months I've been trying to get her to eat more veggies in her diet compared to protein. I've tried to still give her plenty of protein since she is a growing turtle, but I have dialed down her protein intake in an attempt to get her to eat more veggies, which has worked. Could this reduction in protein result in her shell not being as highly domed? I've already started adding more protein into her diet in the form of more red wigglers and crickets just as a precaution. Is this even an issue, or am I overreacting to a natural progression in box turtle growth? This is my first young box turtle, so I'm new to this. Thanks for any advice!
My turtle's in a 75 gallon coconut coir/peat moss bio-active terrarium with a basking site in the low 90s. She has plenty of places to burrow and hide, as well as a water bowl to swim in and live plants to forage from. The only thing I can think of as a possible cause if this is an issue is that over the last few months I've been trying to get her to eat more veggies in her diet compared to protein. I've tried to still give her plenty of protein since she is a growing turtle, but I have dialed down her protein intake in an attempt to get her to eat more veggies, which has worked. Could this reduction in protein result in her shell not being as highly domed? I've already started adding more protein into her diet in the form of more red wigglers and crickets just as a precaution. Is this even an issue, or am I overreacting to a natural progression in box turtle growth? This is my first young box turtle, so I'm new to this. Thanks for any advice!