Well, I Lost All My Gulf Coast Box Turtles!

Skip K

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We kept him 6 more years in our enclosed pond then we released him. We named him Timex...after the watch. Because Timex used to have a slogan “It takes a lickin’ and keeps on tickin’”. Even though he developed a unique swimming style because of his stumps...he adapted beautifully. Course he would never be able to mate back in the wild. I still feel sadness about my carelessness though.
 

Skip K

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And I forget to mention...which surprised me...Timex was a little over 3 inches when attacked. In the time we had him he matured to a adult...and the tissue regenerated better than I had hoped with his front legs eventually reaching about 3/4’s of their normal length.
 

KarenSoCal

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Because Timex used to have a slogan “It takes a lickin’ and keeps on tickin’”.... I still feel sadness about my carelessness though.
Oh yes, I remember the commercials well!

Of course you feel sad, but you rehabbed him well. Hopefully he's still out there, mucking through the mud.
 

Skip K

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I like to think so. He was released back into the lake from which my friend got him. And over the years we had him...even though his diet included pellets...he was fed fish, crayfish and worms...because I never wanted him to lose his natural foraging instincts.
 

Skip K

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And Karen...I’d also like to thank you, Yvonne, Tom and the others who helped me with advice about the urate issues with my 3 baby Sulcatas. They came to us with dehydration issues and I wasn’t doing enough initially about it. It took a lot of pounding into my head about proper humidity as I was conditioned for years that too moist an environ was instant RI. But I made corrections and have not had a urate issue of any kind for the last month. I am grateful to all.
 
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Yvonne G

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WHOO HOO AND ZIPPITY DOO DAH!! My last lost turtle has come home!

I was looking over the fence as I always do when I'm out that way and there he was, just sauntering along without a care in the world.

I threw the hose down and went running for the gate. It's about 50' to the gate, then around the end of the fence and 50' back up to where I saw him. Naturally, by the time I got there he was nowhere to be seen. But I braved the low hanging branches of the thorny palo verde tree, and went the direction he had been going, and THERE HE WAS!!

'They' say that box turtles are territorial and will go through hell and high water to get back to their home territory. My gulf coast box turtles have lived here for over twenty years. It makes me very proud to realize that my gulf coast yard is homey and comfortable enough for my turtles to think of it as 'home'.
 

Maggie3fan

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WHOO HOO AND ZIPPITY DOO DAH!! My last lost turtle has come home!

I was looking over the fence as I always do when I'm out that way and there he was, just sauntering along without a care in the world.

I threw the hose down and went running for the gate. It's about 50' to the gate, then around the end of the fence and 50' back up to where I saw him. Naturally, by the time I got there he was nowhere to be seen. But I braved the low hanging branches of the thorny palo verde tree, and went the direction he had been going, and THERE HE WAS!!

'They' say that box turtles are territorial and will go through hell and high water to get back to their home territory. My gulf coast box turtles have lived here for over twenty years. It makes me very proud to realize that my gulf coast yard is homey and comfortable enough for my turtles to think of it as 'home'.
That's exciting, and sure gives much validity to the territorial thing...
 

PJay

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I'm happy you were able to round them all up again. It is interesting all the stories of box turtles getting loose and being found later hanging around the enclosure.
 

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