New to turtles. All suggestions appreciated

joleneh02

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Sep 20, 2017
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4
Location (City and/or State)
Silver city nm
Hi! I've been wanting turtles half my life but just got brave enough to get two! I got two off of Craigslist. Both appear active. The owners said one was a girl and one was a boy but I think they are both girls. Both have flat stomach and brown eyes. They also said they are two years old. They weren't sure what type of box, I'm thinking ornate? They also said they've never fed them any bugs or meat because they eat fruits and veggies only.. :( Hopefully that hasn't caused too much damage.
Right now I have a reptile tank 36 in x 15 in. I have organic soil and coconut fiber one one side and the reptile mulch stuff on the other both sides up to 4.5 inches. A log and popsicle stick house (my son made) for hidie holes. And swim area and food bowl. I bought parsley seeds to plant. I'm going to plant more but didn't know what kind. I have a side tank heater and a uva/uvb/heat lamp on from 7am til 10 pm. I have turtle pellets as well as the omnivore dried food mix. I also have fresh fruits and veggies and live mealworms. I have dubia roaches but need to see if turtles can eat those. Also how big of bugs can they eat because my dubia colony is HUGE.
I'm going to work on an outside habitat in the spring but plan on keeping them in this winter.
Any suggestions for me??? Thank you for reading!1506012642489310139429.jpg 1506012696508886897823.jpg
 

Yvonne G

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Hi, and welcome!

They're probably still too small to know the sex, and box turtles' plastron really don't get the big concavity in the males like with some tortoise species. It would be just a tiny little indentation, sometimes not very noticeable.

I have a couple suggestions: Get rid of that dangerous water bowl and use a large plant saucer instead. Sink it down into the substrate so the turtle doesn't have to climb up over the rim to get in.

I don't like to use any kind of sand, but I do use soil from the yard for my box turtles. They love to dig. Yes, it's messy, but I'm making the habitat for the box turtles, not for my convenience. And it should be kept moist.

Box turtles can eat roaches. Small turtles may have a bit of trouble with big roaches, but give it a try and see. I also use night crawlers, angle worms, small bits of chicken or fish, clean snails and slugs, etc. I start my baby box turtles out on the same chopped up vegetables/greens that I feed the baby tortoises, however, I mix in a small amount of fruit, then top it with worms or pinhead crickets, chicken or fish. This way they start out eating a well-rounded diet and don't fixate on the animal protein.

Can you take a better picture (not blurry) of both of the turtles, please? Top and bottom shots.
 

Yvonne G

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Yeah, they're still too small to sex. My guess would be an ornate cross. At first I was going to say desert box, but I think they may be intergrade, ornate and something else. You mentioned you were worried their previous care might have been not the best, but they look quite ok to me. I wouldn't worry.
 

joleneh02

New Member
Joined
Sep 20, 2017
Messages
4
Location (City and/or State)
Silver city nm
Thank you! They are eating and active already so I figured that is a good sign! I did throw in about 20 dubia roaches. They caught one each and the rest hid. I figure they can forage for a while. Again thank you for your input!
 
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