SammyTurtle20
New Member
Hi everyone! I recently adopted an eastern box turtle, Sammy, from a family member. He has been much less energetic than usual the past few days and I think (but am not sure) that his breathing may have changed. I'm not sure if I need to be concerned about a possible respiratory infection or if this is normal behavior and I just feel like there is a change because I'm working from home (due to COVID-19) so I am watching him all day instead of just evenings and weekends.
He is in the same habitat that he came in, but I'm in the process of improving it. It's a 36x18 in glass terrarium, with 1 half-log hide, substrate that is too dry, a pie dish for water that I clean at least daily, and a UVB light that is probably too old. I'm in an apartment right now, so I can't do an outdoor enclosure or anything significantly larger yet, but I'm definitely planning for the future. New substrate (eco earth and peat moss), a new UVB bulb/2nd lamp, and vitamin A and calcium supplements are all ordered, but haven't arrived yet. He has been eating some fruits and veggies since coming out of hibernation, but not very much. I know I need to give him more protein - Advice is appreciated, especially ways to prepare 'people food' proteins that would be healthy for him.
Within the last week I covered 2 walls of the tank so the glass doesn't stress him out, bought a 100w Exo Terra® Daylight Heat Lamp bulb (on for ~12 hours during the day only), got a slate feeding stone, and have been soaking him and experimenting with different water dishes/set ups to see if he likes more water and if there is a way to lessen the amount of substrate he gets in it. I don't think he had been soaked at all and I still am concerned that he is probably dehydrated due to the current substrate, so I got a larger and deeper water dish (plastic tupperware), built up the substrate around it and added pebbles to make an incline so he can get in and out by himself and the water isn't too deep. I did clean the pebbles well before adding them to his water dish and I've been rinsing it and replacing the water multiple times daily recently.
Since making all of these changes, his behavior has been different than what I have grown to expect. I sometimes let him walk around the room I am working out of while I am there and watching him and he is usually quite active - he will patrol the exterior, find hiding spots behind potted plants, etc. and only occasionally stop at his water dish. The past few days, he has not tried to walk around much at all, and spends most of his time just laying on the warmer side of his cage, partially or completely pulled into his shell, barely even raising his head up. He'll sometimes go to a different part of his cage for a little while, and then come back out to bask more. When he is out of his cage, he walks around much less than he used to. I've notice his head/neck moving in and out of his shell a little as he is breathing sometimes (I can't figure out if this is normal and he does this all the time or not), and 2 or 3 times he has 'yawned' in a way that looks like videos of turtles trying to clear their lungs of mucus, and I've never seen him do that before. I've been putting him in his water dish with lukewarm water, also under the heating lamp, and he'll stay there much longer than usual before he gets out. He will rub his face a lot when he is in the water, and before now I've only seen him do that when he is eating. He has no mucus in his nose or mouth that I can see, and his eyes are not noticeably swollen.
Any thoughts or advice? Is 'yawning' and rubbing his face while in his water normal? Is this normal behavior for a turtle that just had a heat lamp turned on and is coming out of hibernation, or is basking partially/completely in his shell a warning sign? Should I go back to the pie dish for his water? Could this be because he needs more protein or vitamins? Or is all of this normal? Any help and advice is much appreciated!
Thank you all!
He is in the same habitat that he came in, but I'm in the process of improving it. It's a 36x18 in glass terrarium, with 1 half-log hide, substrate that is too dry, a pie dish for water that I clean at least daily, and a UVB light that is probably too old. I'm in an apartment right now, so I can't do an outdoor enclosure or anything significantly larger yet, but I'm definitely planning for the future. New substrate (eco earth and peat moss), a new UVB bulb/2nd lamp, and vitamin A and calcium supplements are all ordered, but haven't arrived yet. He has been eating some fruits and veggies since coming out of hibernation, but not very much. I know I need to give him more protein - Advice is appreciated, especially ways to prepare 'people food' proteins that would be healthy for him.
Within the last week I covered 2 walls of the tank so the glass doesn't stress him out, bought a 100w Exo Terra® Daylight Heat Lamp bulb (on for ~12 hours during the day only), got a slate feeding stone, and have been soaking him and experimenting with different water dishes/set ups to see if he likes more water and if there is a way to lessen the amount of substrate he gets in it. I don't think he had been soaked at all and I still am concerned that he is probably dehydrated due to the current substrate, so I got a larger and deeper water dish (plastic tupperware), built up the substrate around it and added pebbles to make an incline so he can get in and out by himself and the water isn't too deep. I did clean the pebbles well before adding them to his water dish and I've been rinsing it and replacing the water multiple times daily recently.
Since making all of these changes, his behavior has been different than what I have grown to expect. I sometimes let him walk around the room I am working out of while I am there and watching him and he is usually quite active - he will patrol the exterior, find hiding spots behind potted plants, etc. and only occasionally stop at his water dish. The past few days, he has not tried to walk around much at all, and spends most of his time just laying on the warmer side of his cage, partially or completely pulled into his shell, barely even raising his head up. He'll sometimes go to a different part of his cage for a little while, and then come back out to bask more. When he is out of his cage, he walks around much less than he used to. I've notice his head/neck moving in and out of his shell a little as he is breathing sometimes (I can't figure out if this is normal and he does this all the time or not), and 2 or 3 times he has 'yawned' in a way that looks like videos of turtles trying to clear their lungs of mucus, and I've never seen him do that before. I've been putting him in his water dish with lukewarm water, also under the heating lamp, and he'll stay there much longer than usual before he gets out. He will rub his face a lot when he is in the water, and before now I've only seen him do that when he is eating. He has no mucus in his nose or mouth that I can see, and his eyes are not noticeably swollen.
Any thoughts or advice? Is 'yawning' and rubbing his face while in his water normal? Is this normal behavior for a turtle that just had a heat lamp turned on and is coming out of hibernation, or is basking partially/completely in his shell a warning sign? Should I go back to the pie dish for his water? Could this be because he needs more protein or vitamins? Or is all of this normal? Any help and advice is much appreciated!
Thank you all!