TeethingBeastie
New Member
Hi, my name is Ann and I have a 3-toed Box Turtle named Lox that I received from a student (who breeds them) when she was about a year old. She is now approx 5 years old, and it has been 4 years of joy and a bit (a lot) of stress! Learning to be a box turtle mama was (is) not easy. I try so hard to raise her correctly, but she tries hard to contradict a lot of what I have read on how to care for her. It doesn't help that there's a lot of conflicting info out there as well!
She is a sweet but naughty turtle that does not like to eat her veggies. I ended up buying a compost bin because I was throwing out so much food that she refused to eat. Right now she will only eat Romaine lettuce, papaya, peaches, and occasionally a bite of apple. What she does eat are crickets (gut loaded as much as I can), and snails (and whatever she finds outside like the bee I saw her eat this morning)! When she was younger, I snuck in a variety of veggies finely chopped with cat food, but then found out I shouldn't be feeding her cat food! So I stopped but she won't eat plain veggies. I tried sneaking in slivers of carrot with salmon I fed her, but she ate the salmon and spit out the carrot. Sometimes in desperation, I dump a jar of organic carrot baby food on her while she's in her bath, hoping she'll get some of it inside her when she drinks the water! Anyone else have a hard time getting their boxie to eat veggies?
Also, one thing I have not seen in the common online literature on turtle care that I had to discover the hard way, was that females will lay eggs even if they have never been with a male. Last month she started acting very strangely. She went on wild rampages in her aquarium. When I put her outside she continued frantically stomping around, always seeming to search for something but unable to find it. She stopped eating and was just incredibly restless. So I googled her behavior and found out that it the behavior of a gravid female! I also found out that it was very dangerous for gravid females to become egg bound, which made me very worried. I tried making an indoor nesting box for her (as we were having an unusual cold front), but she refused it and kept walking to the back glass door like a dog wanting out. After about 2 weeks of her rampaging and not eating, of me fretting as I tried to make the conditions right for nesting (outside when it warmed up), she finally settled down to construct a nest in what was mostly damp clay soil. It took her about 5 hours or more to dig it out, lay her eggs, and cover it up (I helped a bit with the covering). Poor thing was exhausted and when I placed her in a water bowl, she stuck her head down and drank for at least a minute. The next day I excavated her nest and found two giant eggs! Unfortunately she has just recently started rampaging again so I'm worried she might still have eggs she needs to lay. I'm going to try getting her an appointment with a turtle vet next week.
I am also about to try constructing an indoor turtle table for her, (although space inside is somewhat limited). I'm willing to hear any suggestions on that!
Sorry this was so long and possibly inappropriate for a first introduction! I am looking forward to learning a lot about caring for my baby!
She is a sweet but naughty turtle that does not like to eat her veggies. I ended up buying a compost bin because I was throwing out so much food that she refused to eat. Right now she will only eat Romaine lettuce, papaya, peaches, and occasionally a bite of apple. What she does eat are crickets (gut loaded as much as I can), and snails (and whatever she finds outside like the bee I saw her eat this morning)! When she was younger, I snuck in a variety of veggies finely chopped with cat food, but then found out I shouldn't be feeding her cat food! So I stopped but she won't eat plain veggies. I tried sneaking in slivers of carrot with salmon I fed her, but she ate the salmon and spit out the carrot. Sometimes in desperation, I dump a jar of organic carrot baby food on her while she's in her bath, hoping she'll get some of it inside her when she drinks the water! Anyone else have a hard time getting their boxie to eat veggies?
Also, one thing I have not seen in the common online literature on turtle care that I had to discover the hard way, was that females will lay eggs even if they have never been with a male. Last month she started acting very strangely. She went on wild rampages in her aquarium. When I put her outside she continued frantically stomping around, always seeming to search for something but unable to find it. She stopped eating and was just incredibly restless. So I googled her behavior and found out that it the behavior of a gravid female! I also found out that it was very dangerous for gravid females to become egg bound, which made me very worried. I tried making an indoor nesting box for her (as we were having an unusual cold front), but she refused it and kept walking to the back glass door like a dog wanting out. After about 2 weeks of her rampaging and not eating, of me fretting as I tried to make the conditions right for nesting (outside when it warmed up), she finally settled down to construct a nest in what was mostly damp clay soil. It took her about 5 hours or more to dig it out, lay her eggs, and cover it up (I helped a bit with the covering). Poor thing was exhausted and when I placed her in a water bowl, she stuck her head down and drank for at least a minute. The next day I excavated her nest and found two giant eggs! Unfortunately she has just recently started rampaging again so I'm worried she might still have eggs she needs to lay. I'm going to try getting her an appointment with a turtle vet next week.
I am also about to try constructing an indoor turtle table for her, (although space inside is somewhat limited). I'm willing to hear any suggestions on that!
Sorry this was so long and possibly inappropriate for a first introduction! I am looking forward to learning a lot about caring for my baby!
Hello and welcome to the forum 
