New(ish) boxie owner; questions and pics

[DVirginiana]

Hi everybody

I found a sick box turtle this summer, and she's a permanent resident with me now. When I picked her up she had an eye infection so bad that her whole head was swollen and she couldn't open them at all. She also had a respiratory infection. It took several months to get it 100% cleared up. I normally don't keep w/c animals, but by the time she was better, she would run up to people to beg for food. There is also a little scarring on her eyelids, so I think hibernation would probably just result in another nasty infection.

I want to make sure I'm doing her care correctly, so I'm just going to post some of what I've been doing...
Every three days she gets nightcrawlers, shredded carrot, and baby spinach. In between feedings, she usually gets a blueberry or banana treat.
Her cage is a re-vamped guinea pig cage, and idk the measurements. Probably about like a 40-long. She gets out to roam the reptile room once a day though.
Her bedding is repti-bark, with a concrete stepping stone in one corner to bask. She has a pile of sphagnum moss that I mist once a day; it seems to help keep her eyes from gumming up. I don't feed her in-cage.
She has a UVB bulb and a red bulb for heat.

Anything else I should be doing? I've never had a turtle before.

Here are some pics of her; one from when I found her and one of her now. Is there any way to guess age? Based on the wear and tear on her shell I'm thinking she's pretty old.

 

[DVirginiana]

Forgot to mention, I also dust her food with grated cuttlebone.

 

[wellington]

Hello and Welcome. Looks like you've done a good job with her. I would get a CHE for night time. They like it dark like any thing else. I would also not feed fruit. Make sure you have water for her available 24/7 that she can get into herself. Others can help more.

 

[mainey34]

Hello and welcome...wow what a difference. She is very lucky to have found you. Others will be on their way to give you some answers...

 

[DVirginiana]

Hello and Welcome. Looks like you've done a good job with her. I would get a CHE for night time. They like it dark like any thing else. I would also not feed fruit. Make sure you have water for her available 24/7 that she can get into herself. Others can help more.

What is a CHE?
I was wondering, what are the ideal temps for boxies? I've read a lot of different things.

Her water is in a plate leveled with the substrate. Shallow enough that if she flips over, she can keep her head above water and get upright again.

 

[terryo]

She looks like a young female Eastern Box Turtle. Most Eastern's come from wooded area's with sunlight filtered through the trees. She really needs an outdoor garden with plenty of plants to sit under and places to dig into. They like to bury themselves during the day. Mine come out in the Morning and bask in the sun, go in the pond, and eat, and then mostly stay under a shrub until the late afternoon when they will come out to eat again before digging under for the night.
If you have to keep her inside, just remember, low light, a water dish big enough to sit in and soak, a flat stone to eat on, or her beak will grow too long and need to be trimmed, some plants for humidity, maybe some leaf litter, and substrate deep enough to dig into. I would suggest a long tube UVB (5.0 is good enough). If your home is warm, and the temp. in the enclosure is at least 75, she will be fine with no heat but if it's cooler, she will slow down and not eat, so you would have to get a heat emitter. What you have her in now will not hold humidity, which she needs. A large Christmas Tree storage bin or any large plastic bin would be better for warmth and humidity. As for food, I usually make a mix with some cooked carrots, cooked sweet potato, some kind of greens, and veggies, and some fruit...strawberries, melon etc. I add some ground venison (you can use good quality dog food...I use Wellness venison and sweet potato. Mine get this in the morning and in the afternoon I'll give them worms or some kind of buggie thing. They need a variety of veggies, fruit and protein. I hope this helps and you did a great job with her health problem. She is beautiful.

 

[janevicki]

The "Before" pic your lady boxie looks very sad. The "Now" she looks like she is saying "I want more worms and fruit, and I want it now!!".
Congrats! You have done an amazing job of getting her well. She looks like a cute spunky little boxie.

 

[DVirginiana]

Haha, about three seconds after the 'after' pic she started chasing my hand around trying to con another worm out of me.

She looks like a young female Eastern Box Turtle. Most Eastern's come from wooded area's with sunlight filtered through the trees. She really needs an outdoor garden with plenty of plants to sit under and places to dig into. They like to bury themselves during the day. Mine come out in the Morning and bask in the sun, go in the pond, and eat, and then mostly stay under a shrub until the late afternoon when they will come out to eat again before digging under for the night.
If you have to keep her inside, just remember, low light, a water dish big enough to sit in and soak, a flat stone to eat on, or her beak will grow too long and need to be trimmed, some plants for humidity, maybe some leaf litter, and substrate deep enough to dig into. I would suggest a long tube UVB (5.0 is good enough). If your home is warm, and the temp. in the enclosure is at least 75, she will be fine with no heat but if it's cooler, she will slow down and not eat, so you would have to get a heat emitter. What you have her in now will not hold humidity, which she needs. A large Christmas Tree storage bin or any large plastic bin would be better for warmth and humidity. As for food, I usually make a mix with some cooked carrots, cooked sweet potato, some kind of greens, and veggies, and some fruit...strawberries, melon etc. I add some ground venison (you can use good quality dog food...I use Wellness venison and sweet potato. Mine get this in the morning and in the afternoon I'll give them worms or some kind of buggie thing. They need a variety of veggies, fruit and protein. I hope this helps and you did a great job with her health problem. She is beautiful.

I've got a list of reptile equipment that I'm going to ask everyone for this Christmas (bah, finances...)
I'm in an apartment, so outside housing isn't an option right now I have a 'reptile room' and the ambient temps are about 80(day) and 75(night). Under her heat lamp it's probably right at 85. The bottom half of the guinea pig cage is plastic like a tupperware container, it just has a wire top that hooks onto it.

Just wondering, how can you guess the age for a turtle?
I'd love to try mulch, since the moss dries out fairly quickly even with misting... Is there a way to get/make it that is pesticide and bug free?

Cool, I'll go ahead and try the sweet potato. Are there any foods that I should avoid, and is there a ratio of protein/greens that she should get? It's been about 50/50 so far.

 

[terryo]

For a substrate I use soil mixed with coco coir. It seems to hold the humidity well. Protein/greens....I use 60 greens/5 fruit/ and the rest protein. I throw in lots of worms, and pill bugs into the substrate. They like to dig and find their own food and this helps with keeping the nails trim, and also the beak. As the turtle gets older the growth lines seem to smooth out. There isn't much you can't give them. I don't give citrus fruit. Mine love berries, melon, mashed carrots, sweet potato. Dandelion and plantain weeds are high in calcium, and I always try to mix some in their foods. Escarole and endive are good too. Just mix it up and offer variety.

 

[dannel]

Hello and Welcome. Looks like you've done a good job with her. I would get a CHE for night time. They like it dark like any thing else. I would also not feed fruit. Make sure you have water for her available 24/7 that she can get into herself. Others can help more.

What is a CHE?
I was wondering, what are the ideal temps for boxies? I've read a lot of different things.

Her water is in a plate leveled with the substrate. Shallow enough that if she flips over, she can keep her head above water and get upright again.

I don't know if its been mentioned already, but a CHE is a Ceramic Heat Emitter.

 

[DVirginiana]

I like the idea of the CHE better than the bulbs I've been using. Gonna pick one up next time I go by the pet store.

For a substrate I use soil mixed with coco coir. It seems to hold the humidity well. Protein/greens....I use 60 greens/5 fruit/ and the rest protein. I throw in lots of worms, and pill bugs into the substrate. They like to dig and find their own food and this helps with keeping the nails trim, and also the beak. As the turtle gets older the growth lines seem to smooth out. There isn't much you can't give them. I don't give citrus fruit. Mine love berries, melon, mashed carrots, sweet potato. Dandelion and plantain weeds are high in calcium, and I always try to mix some in their foods. Escarole and endive are good too. Just mix it up and offer variety.

She'll probably appreciate the expanded diet. Do you know if silverside fish would be an okay treat on occasion? I have three snakes that eat them, and it'd be great if I could add a couple in Turtle's food every now and then.

I tried coco-fiber when her eyes first healed up enough for her to go on bedding and not just towels. I worry about that, because it took only about a day or two for it to start getting caught in the little scars she still has on her eye-lids and start irritating them again. I'll keep playing around with different mixtures though till I find something that works for her. She definitely needs something more moist than the moss though.

 

[terryo]

If you use regular soil, and pat it down, and then add some leaf litter on top, that will also hold the humidity and won't get in her eyes. I don't know what silverside fish is, but you can give any fresh water fish. I give mine white fish and they love it.

 

[DVirginiana]

If you use regular soil, and pat it down, and then add some leaf litter on top, that will also hold the humidity and won't get in her eyes. I don't know what silverside fish is, but you can give any fresh water fish. I give mine white fish and they love it.

I'll try that.
Silversides should be fine then. She'll be happy; she always begs when I give them to the snakes.

 

[fbsmith3]

What kind of snakes eat silversides?
Are the silversides still alive when you give them to your box turtle?

I'm intrigued and curious.

 

[DVirginiana]

What kind of snakes eat silversides?
Are the silversides still alive when you give them to your box turtle?

I'm intrigued and curious.

I have garters. They're probably one of the more sensitive snakes to salt/thiaminase/preservatives, so if it's okay to feed a garter it's usually okay to feed to any reptile. I just like to make sure before I actually feed something.

They're frozen/thawed. You can find them in your petsmart freezer section. I gave my turtle just one small one tonight to try it out, and she really liked it.