Look What I Found In My Turtle Pen Today!
Brand new baby three-toed box turtle. Third picture shows it next to the slightly older one I got from chiefr in April of this year. It's the only one I saw, but it was buried under the water dish. I'll dig up the substrate tomorrow and see if there are any more.
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What a cool find. Congrats.
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Cute little buggar
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Do you need to dig them up, or will they come out when they're ready?
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Baby turtles! How cute 🥰
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Excellent find!
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toad67: 30060576372635/comments/30060612330523
Do you need to dig them up, or will they come out when they're ready?
I'm new at this. The baby you see had burrowed up under the water container. I picked it up to rinse and refill it and there the critter was. As hot as it's been, even the adults stay buried up, and appear to be asleep. I believe it's called estivation. I will rake the substrate soon and see if there are any more babies.
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David, because of the high heat here and the multi-year on going draught, I have been feeding daily. I don't see the numbers each day I am used to, but I see some eating each day. Hopefully it is not the same few each time (yeah I can actually tell them apart). I also see a number of babies (we have three years worth, about 8, though the sexes have been separated for 4 years), which hopefully will all be released next year, assuming the draught gets a respite and it is not 100 degrees again all summer.
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Well it is a turtle pen, so what should you find?
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"Brand new baby three-toed box turtle."
I know next to nothing about turtles. If it's a called 'three-toed' turtle, then why am I seeing four toes on it?
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NeoBlackdog: 30060576372635/comments/30060628679707
"Brand new baby three-toed box turtle."
I know next to nothing about turtles. If it's a called 'three-toed' turtle, then why am I seeing four toes on it?
I think it's the shadow.
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He Dog: 30060576372635/comments/30060644172187
David, because of the high heat here and the multi-year on going draught, I have been feeding daily. I don't see the numbers each day I am used to, but I see some eating each day. Hopefully it is not the same few each time (yeah I can actually tell them apart). I also see a number of babies (we have three years worth, about 8, though the sexes have been separated for 4 years), which hopefully will all be released next year, assuming the draught gets a respite and it is not 100 degrees again all summer.
Do you do some kind of rescue?
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Three toes on the hind feet.
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Lady Rae: 30060576372635/comments/30060613380763
https://forums.gunbroker.com/discussion/comment/11410274#Comment_11410274
Do you do some kind of rescue?
For some years while I was at the zoo, we had a lot of box turtles offered as donations. We had a group we used in education, but had no room for additional animals no in our collection plan. I told that to the donors and offered to find other homes not at the zoo. Some said great. We were offered mostly two forms. I kept those of one form (desert) and found other homes for the other four (western). We have had some more than 33 years. And they bred. We had over 300 young before we separated the sexes with a low fence. Still looking for homes for most of the remaining turtles.
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He Dog: 30060576372635/comments/30060613593883
https://forums.gunbroker.com/discussion/comment/11410305#Comment_11410305
For some years while I was at the zoo, we had a lot of box turtles offered as donations. We had a group we used in education, but had no room for additional animals no in our collection plan. I told that to the donors and offered to find other homes not at the zoo. Some said great. We were offered mostly two forms. I kept those of one form (desert) and found other homes for the other four (western). We have had some more than 33 years. And they bred. We had over 300 young before we separated the sexes with a low fence. Still looking for homes for most of the remaining turtles.
That's really neat. It's takes a special person to do stuff like that.
(And no I don't need any 🐢 turtle's lol)
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They don't belong where you live. I am at the western edge of their range.
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He Dog, I'm embarrassed to ask, but how do you tell little boy turtles from little girl turtles??
Curious minds want to know!!😁
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Impossible on juveniles, difficult on sexually immature turtles. On adult box turtles, males have longer, thicker tails, with the cloaca opening well away from the body. Females have much shorter tails, with the cloaca opening at the body/tail junction. Typically males have red irises, females brown, but that is mot 100% reliable. There are other differences in shell architecture as well. The "tail test" applies to a number of species in the family Emydidae. The family includes many of the aquatic species of turtles in the US and includes all 7 species of North American box turtles.
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Grasshopper: 30060576372635/comments/30060598779291
Well it is a turtle pen, so what should you find?
It's a turtle that I didn't put there. Some he-ing and she-ing was apparently going on.
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NeoBlackdog: 30060576372635/comments/30060628679707
"Brand new baby three-toed box turtle."
I know next to nothing about turtles. If it's a called 'three-toed' turtle, then why am I seeing four toes on it?
The three-toed box turtle is called that because it USUALLY, but not always, has three toes on each HIND foot.
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He Dog: 30060576372635/comments/30060599806747
Impossible on juveniles, difficult on sexually immature turtles. On adult box turtles, males have longer, thicker tails, with the cloaca opening well away from the body. Females have much shorter tails, with the cloaca opening at the body/tail junction. Typically males have red irises, females brown, but that is mot 100% reliable. There are other differences in shell architecture as well. The "tail test" applies to a number of species in the family Emydidae. The family includes many of the aquatic species of turtles in the US and includes all 7 species of North American box turtles.
Also the male has a concave belly shell for mounting. The female shell mostly flat. As posted the eye color helps too.
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I mentioned architectural shell differences, but there is a lot of structural overlap between males and females. It takes a practiced eye to get it right most of the time. there are a suite of characters that will mostly sort the sexes, but none alone will always get it right. We have a turtle named Prince, the turtle formerly known as Sheila, and one named Molly, who became obviously a male after being named.
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I just would have named a turtle of mine Sue. Then, it wouldn't really matter if I was right about its sex. 😁
He'd also be one tough little guy, if I was wrong with his name!
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Does this mean it's just about time for soup?
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Sure Mr.P. box turtles eat a lot of fungus toxic to humans, so they come pre- flavored. Enjoy!
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