New Three Toed Box Turtles

tignish99

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Hello:

An acquaintance of mine has recently acquired two three toed box turtles. My understanding is that the enclosure came with them. They are both about 4 years old. The bigger one that you can see in the terrarium picture up close to the front seems to be fine and alert. I am concerned about the shell of the smaller one and have attached pictures. They are fed veggies, fruit, mealworms, box turtle pellets. They have a heat lamp but no UV light. She asked me to post this so that you can comment and give her advice. She wants to learn and take care of them as best as possible.

Thank you
 

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Yvonne G

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Metabolic bone disease. The first indicator is the long, curly toe nails. Then the sloping back carapace. The diet sounds ok, however, the turtles could use some real sunshine.
 

johnsonnboswell

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Real sunshine makes a lot of difference.

In the meantime, remove the hide since it's blocking the lamp's rays. Offer better moist substrate and more room. Offer more variety in the diet.

Tess Cook has a good book available online free
 

Yellow Turtle01

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Coco coir holds nositure way better than that stuff! She should try an MVB, needs only one lamp.
 

lisa127

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I do not agree on an MVB for box turtles generally. I use a fluorescent tube 5.0 UVB and a black moonglo bulb for heat. They need a much larger enclosure and a cuttlebone in the enclosure at all times. Yes, they have metabolic bone disease. Real sunshine would be great for them. My two boxies were raised from hatchlings indoors with UVB lighting and have no MBD. However, since they guys do already have it real sunshine would be great. I would definitely add nightcrawlers to the diet. They are better for them than the mealworms anyway. You might want to get some reptomin turtle sticks and feed those moistened once a week as well, with some veggies and fruit mixed in.
 

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