Sudden Death of Florida Box Turtle

[RumWeatherReptiles]

I'm going to mention what I see wrong in that picture, not to hurt your feelings or pick on you, but to offer a suggestion as to why he died.

Because baby box turtles are so very, very small, they dry out quite quickly. They need to be kept in very moist conditions. Not just soaking and access to water, but moist substrate and maybe leaf litter to hide under. I don't see any substrate at all in that picture, just a bare, glass floor. My baby box turtles live is swamp-like conditions and you can actually see water standing in several places around the enclosure.

I'm so very sorry you lost little Bauri. They are beautiful box turtles and quite entertaining to keep.

I always appreciate advise and constructive criticism. Especially when i am making a mistake that i can learn from. It appears that my photo did not do the best job at showing that he was indeed being kept in shallow water. Changed every 2 days or so. About 3/4 of an inch or so. To shallow to drown in.

 

[SuzanneZ]

Extremely disheartened by the sudden death of my few month old Florida Box Turtle (t.c.bauri) who we simply called “Bauri”. This little guy/or girl was so full of personality. The most energetic little turtle ever. He was like a little bulldozer. When you picked him up he would nearly jump out of your hand. We live in South Jersey and when i picked him up from Fedex he nearly leapt out of the box. He has been thriving in the months i have had him. He ate Mazuri pellets every day with eagerness. I kept him similar to how i keep my eastern box turtles when they are small, except warmer. His warm side at about 80 and his cool side around 73. He had a rock that he basked on regularly and a hide on the cool side where he slept at night. As well as tons of plastic leafy vines that he regularly climbed on. The whole enclosure had a slight tilt so the warmer side held about 1.5 inches of water while the cold was about 0.5. This past day, he ate his breakfast like always and then was sitting on his rock like always. I went to pull him out to get a few pictures of him and realized he was completely stiff. A total gut punch. I can’t think of anything i could have done differently, but maybe there is something i was missing. Any ideas?

So sorry that happened to you. I can relate to the shock except they were my old bantam chickens (one was 15) and minks broke into their safe pens and murdered them.