New Tortoise - New Box Turtle? - New to the Forum!

[Daisy44]

Hey everyone, I am brand spankin new to this forum and very excited to be apart of it. Ok so I have (what I think) is a CA Desert Tortoise. I am a realtor in Orange County and one of my clients was just gonna turn her 35yr old tortoise loose!! I said I would take it because I have had a sulcutta in the past and LOVE tortoises. Soooo its been awake for about a week now and thriving. It's so sweet and follows me around the yard. I love her. Anywho.....I also have 3 dogs which I keep completely seperate at all times. This morning I look outside and my dog is barking at the ground in our flower bed. I went to see what was up and there was a turtle in a hole!!! We have just moved into a new house about a month ago so I am assuming this little guy has been left behind when hibernating or something. Anyways it looks like a box turtle. I know nothing about box turtles, but the people before us lived here for about 5yrs. There is no pool or any way of getting water. Box turtles need water right? Could this be a wild turtle? I turned on the sprinklers and it ran over and laid on the sprinkler head. Then it climbed the 2 foot flower bed wall and hid in all of our bushes (in the pool of water the sprinklers made).

I was just wondering if anyone had any advise for me....should I give it away? Is it cool if I just let it live in my back yard? Do I need to do something for it? Can it live in the same enclosure as my Desert Tortoise? (FYI the enclosure the my tortoise lives in isn't an enclosure. I basically put a large fence down the middle of my yard with dogs on one side and tortoise on the other. Its a huge area.)

I tired to take a pic of the box turtle.....if anyone thinks it is something other then a box turtle will you let me know!

THANKS!!!!

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Daisy and welcome to the Forum!!

You are correct in assuming that the tortoise and box turtle shouldn't live in the same pen. We'll need to see pictures of both animals to be sure we're talking about the right thing, though.

If you really do have a desert tortoise, then he needs a more open space with shade, but lots of sun, while the box turtle needs a well-planted moister habitat.

I'm looking forward to your pictures (some of us use photobucket.com or tinypic.com - both are free)

 

[wellington]

Hello and Welcome a pic of both is the only way we can help. Different species have different requirements. Post pics as soon as you can.