Hatchling Growth

[TigsMom]

Turbo (EBT Hatchling August 9, 2013)


Turbo (2 mos., October 9,2013)



Turbo (7 mos., March 29, 2013)


She's getting 1 or 2 kibbles of Mazuri (2 times a week) and eating it well (when softened, mushed with about a teaspoon of canned cat food). Loves crickets (which I also feed Mazuri), meal worms and earthworms.

I'm a little concerned about the small indentation on front scutes, but hopefully those will plump in time. She's getting partial sun during the day. Her sunning area is a childs water table with moist dirt, water dish and hide. The top is covered in hardware wired and weighted down with rocks to keep the cover from getting knocked off. The sunning area is on my patio which is covered with shade screen with dapples of sun coming from the sides of the shade screen patio cover throughout the day.

Just calling her a girl, because I've never hatched a male here. It was a very warm and hot summer during her incubation. I discovered the eggs in my boxie enclosure about 1 week before they hatched.

 

[Yvonne G]

She seems to be growing nicely.

 

[bigred]

little she is looking good

 

[guille24]

Nice job !! Such a nice little turtle

 

[Saleama]

I have 4 babies from last summer that were housed indoors all winter and kept up and feeding most of the time. They weigh in at 15 - 27 grams. I have 2 that were not found until this weekend and they over wintered in the garden under piles of hay. They weigh 5 - 6 grams. Hard to believe the weight and size difference from being over wintered indoors and over wintered out doors.

 

[TigsMom]

Wow Saleama, that is a dramatic difference between indoors and outdoor hatchlings. It makes sense in that temps and feeding indoors would help with growth and overall health, but 3x's heavier for indoors is really proof of great care paying off. Great job!

 

[diamondbp]

so far so good! Looks like a text book healthy box turtle

 

[Saleama]

Wow Saleama, that is a dramatic difference between indoors and outdoor hatchlings. It makes sense in that temps and feeding indoors would help with growth and overall health, but 3x's heavier for indoors is really proof of great care paying off. Great job!

I call them my little Velociraptor Bale. I drop crickets in 40 - 50 at a time and they go crazy! Within 10 minutes, 40 crickets can quickly become 20 whole crickets and a few half crickets. The half dead ones are scavenged later by the little guy who comes out when it gets a bit quieter. I had five 20 - 25 gram ones but gave one away to a girl who was leaving my local PetSmart. She helped me quite a bit when I first got my torts.
Anyway, it is fun to watch them hunt be it crickets or red wigglers. I hope the new itty bitties start ghrowing as well as there non-wild clutch mates.

 

[wiccan_chicken]

Thank you for this thread! Its wonderful, thanks to you I mixed some wet cat food with Mazuri and calcium/vitamin powder and got a base together for my EBT Spook! Shes not been growing as nicely as I'd like on worms slugs and pill bugs, so now I have a way to get calcium in her and introduce her to veggies! Thank you so much!

 

[bouaboua]

HA! ! !

So cute. Love it.

 

[TigsMom]

Turbo the Box Turtle - Recession = when a quarter starts looking more like a dime (in just 9 months). I'm a believer that Mazuri is helpful in growth!

 

[TigsMom]

Someone posted a while back about the age in which hatchlings/juveniles close their hinges. She's definitnely on the over stuffed side The hinge has developed as it does bend up a little, but she still can't pull completely in, probably due to well fed, more than development. What do you think?

 

[wiccan_chicken]

My Spook is about one/two years old now I bought her as a yearling and was hatched august/september 2012 her hinge is fully usable. I'd say she's two and a half inches? Lately she's gotten good about not going in her shell when I'm around, she's learned I am food bringer and will hesitantly take food from my hand now.