turtle identification 10/10/09
Hello :)
<Hello,>
A friend of my daughter's found this turtle in the woods. I already
scolded him for taking it from its habitat, but now I'm not sure what to
do with it.
<Generally best to release it where found, as soon as possible. Ideally,
contact your local Fish & Wildlife department to see if a park ranger
can take you to an optimal release site away from things like busy
roads.>
I am wondering if I should take it to the pet store even though my
daughter wants to keep it.
<Certainly shouldn't take it to a pet store. For one thing, wild animals
can catch diseases from pet animals, and _vice versa_. On the other
hand, staff at a good reptile and amphibian store may well know
something about the reptiles local to your bit of the world.>
He is rather small (about as big as the palm of my hand) and the bottom
of his shell is a bit soft.
<Appears to be an Eastern Box Turtle, Terrapene carolina. This is a
highly variable species, but the dome-like shell, brown colour, and
hooked beak are characteristic. The front of the lower shell is hinged,
so when the head is pulled back, a trapdoor closes off that part of the
shell. Males have red eyes, females brown. I'm assuming you're in the
United States somewhere, where this is species is _by far_ the most
common terrestrial turtle (what here in England we'd call a tortoise).>
He has a short neck, dark eyes and the bit of yellow colorings that I
can see. seem to be much darker at times and DO appear much brighter in
photos.
<If the eyes are brown, and this is Terrapene carolina, then "he" is a
she.>
He is currently in a large bird cage which we have attempted to convert
for his needs. (Frisbee filled with water, dirt for burrowing, half of a
potters pot for shelter and "hiding" etc.
<Wild-caught specimens don't especially well in captivity, though you
have covered the key things, particularly water. They like to bathe, but
the water shouldn't be so deep (or the bowl so steep around the edges)
it cannot get out easily. If it gets through the first few weeks, and
eats and drinks normally, the species can last a long time in captivity.
High humidity is important. Bear this in mind if you decide to keep this
animal; kept properly, it'll outlive you! The record for a wild specimen
is 138 years, and between 50-100 years seems fairly common. In captivity
you can expect upwards of 30 year lifespans, and up to 60 years has been
reported.
Like all reptiles, you need to provide a heat source of some sort if you
do not plan to hibernate the animal. Generally, hibernating reptiles is
tricky unless you have fattened them up carefully beforehand, and I'd
recommend against it, at least for the first year. The heat source of
choice is a lamp, and it should be one that produces UV-B as well as
heat, because they need UV-B to synthesise Vitamin B1 and convert
calcium into bone and shell.
In short: they need a big vivarium, a bathing pool, a source of heat,
and a source of UV-B. This will be fairly expensive to pull together,
and while there's no rush, you will need to have all these bits and
pieces before it starts getting too cold. In the wild your Box Turtle
would be looking for a resting place to hibernate, somewhere cool, dry,
secure from predators and safe from flooding. If you want to keep your
turtle, you're going to have to provide a warm, humid alternative.>
He moves very quickly and seems to be quite smart lol. (He found a way
out of the cage within a few minutes of putting him in it and we were
thankful we were there to see it or we never would have believed it -
it's fixed now. - and he already prefers one shelter corner over the
other!).
<Shelter is indeed very important. It's also critical to make sure
predators, particularly pet dogs, can't get into the cage. Even a
"playful" dog could wound or kill a Box Turtle.>
I have attached some photos and am very curious to know what kind of
turtle he is, how old, gender etc. and most importantly what he should
be eating and what I should do with him.
<As I said, likely Terrapene carolina, probably female if the eyes are
brown rather than red. Age difficult to say; seems to be full grown, so
could be anything from 10 to 100 years!>
we've tried many types of food (lettuce, bugs, cooked eggs, cooked pork,
fruit etc. - so far he seems to prefer the eggs and pork but only ate
each of those once along with a small bit of cucumber. He seems to eat
one day but not the next.
<Avoid "meat", i.e., anything from a warm blooded animal. The fats in
these foods coagulate inside the turtle, causing problems. Instead opt
for mostly greens, romaine lettuce and curly lettuce being ideal.
Augment with soft fruit (melon, tomato, berries) and offer small amounts
of things like earthworms, mealworms, and white fish. Very occasionally
you can offer them cooked chicken bones, which seem to go down well, but
not too often.>
Thanks in advance for your help.
Brenda
<If you plan to keep this animal, do spend some time reading up on
keeping Eastern Box Turtles in captivity. There are some excellent
reptile books available for pet owners, and one of those would be a
sound investment.
Keeping reptiles in captivity isn't easy, and not something to do on a
whim. It's a shame to capture an animal that can live for 100 years in
the wild, and then kill it after a few months through neglect. So, make
your choice: buy all the stuff it needs to thrive, or else return the
animal from whence it came, ideally after calling the local wildlife
bureau in your neighbourhood. Hope this helps. Cheers, Neale.>
