New EBT Owner looking for advice!!

amberlypage

New Member
Joined
Aug 17, 2020
Messages
4
Location (City and/or State)
Baltimore
Hi all! I adopted a male EBT about three months ago. He is estimated to be about 40-50 years old. He’s doing alright, but i can tell he’s very shy. He always retreats when I clean his water or even put food in his enclosure. He never goes for his food right away and sometimes won’t even eat anything. I feed him every other day, and have tried a variety of fruits, veggies, worms, etc. He’s definitely underweight but he never finishes his entire meal.

I can tell he’s also very scared of me, as he’ll tuck his head in almost every time he sees me or my fingers. I know it can take a long time for box turtles to be comfortable, but I’m wondering if there’s anything I can do? I feel like he’s just so anxious all the time. Here’s a picture of his winter enclosure. He’s had some trouble hibernating in the past, so I was told to keep him inside. Thanks all! I’m so glad I found this forum :)

FA7F41C4-9A9A-4BC0-B53C-E1EC232E4BB2.jpegA15CD8C9-6BD1-4A93-B36D-086949EC5F81.jpeg
 

Relic

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 8, 2018
Messages
538
Location (City and/or State)
Here
Some box turtles remain skittish their entire lives - even long-term captives that would seem to be quite familiar with their surroundings and keeper. Others become accustomed to human presence and show an almost indifference to them entering their enclosure. A few become excited to see a human come near, especially if they associate food with the human. Three months is a pretty short time for a box turtle to become comfortable in new surroundings - they prefer the same old same old instead of change. And this is the time of year that their internal clock tells them to stop eating and prepare for a nice winter nap. So by keeping him indoors, you are fighting his natural inclinations. Give him time and LOTS of places to hide, LOTS of food variety and things should work out. He looks very nice.
 

jeff kushner

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2020
Messages
2,688
Location (City and/or State)
North of Annapolis
Nice home! Not sure if he is as old as suggested, but I just could be personally sensitive to that....lol ....but he looks to be in fantastic shape and is a really good looking beast! I'm not an expert by any means but I have observed that Box turtles, because of limited defenses, use stealth as their primary means of survival. Kind of makes sense when all you can do when under attack is to hunker down and take what's coming.

He will also likely want a bit more room to move around but it's a new home so he can take some time to explore. A big pile of leaf litter in the NE corner in place of the "hide" for him to borrow in is going to make his day and if you want to see him eat......set him in the open and place a wriggling earthworm in front of him...........Matilda can be in a dead sleep but it triggers an auto-response and she goes into "attack mode". Analogous to a cat seeing prey run.....they just are wired to chase.....

Congrats on your new buddy!


jeff
 
Top