All Turtles Message Board

jleclercq51 · Guest Joined: 15 Jun 2007 Posts: 2

Hi ... we're new to the world of turtles, but we found a turtle about as big as a grapefruit, identified it as an Ornate Box Turtle. We live near Houston, near bayou, lots of water features around. Turtle's shell has white markings as a replacement for it's regular markings in some places on the carapace, and somebody told me that this was scar tissue from old wounds. Now I notice around the edge of his/her shell, it is quite irregular and looks eaten up -- could an animal have been eating it trying to get at the turtle? It looks weird, because you can see a lot of the soft inner body of the turtle. Also, the plastron is flaking a bit. At one area, it is flaking to the point of pinkish-ness. Otherwise, the turtle seems fine, i.e. good attitude, eats snails with relish, took a dip in some shallow water. We are keeping him/her outside in our bunnies' pen. Keeping turtle in soft soil covered with pine shavings. Likes to bury himself w/only head poking out. Also, are you supposed to put the food in a bowl or on a plate? They're so low to the ground, how do they know the food is even there and how do they eat it? Thanks!!!!

JEFF4i · Level 1 Joined: 17 Aug 2006 Posts: 21

The white shell could be due to various things. The best bet to finding out would be taking it to a Reptile Vet.

Good to hear it is doing well though, but for future reference, it's preferable not to take turtles out of the wild.

jleclercq51 · Guest Joined: 15 Jun 2007 Posts: 2

Got it, best not to take turtles from the wild. I think we were trying to do the good samaritan thing, give it some TLC, protect it from whatever was trying to harm it, and provide a rich and nutricious diet. Do you think we should just let it go?

MinisMommy · Level 3 Joined: 06 Jun 2007 Posts: 103

Yeah you should probably let it go... they have pretty good instincts for taking care of them selves. And if they are as big as you say... they are several years old. They have a life style they are used to now, and the change can be very stressfull to this. This could cause more harm than leaving them out in the wild. However, if you do decide to keep them, I would definetly take them to a Herpvet in the area and get them checked out. Do more research on box turtles and make sure you are doing everything right. Box turtles eat more veggies than anything... they'll pretty much each the same things you feed the bunnies... carrots, lettuce, veggies like that. A little protine is good but not too much now that they are older. Too much can cause the shell to pyramid which is a bad thing. Also, land turtles are NOT swimmers... you said it took a dip in some shallow water... how shallow? Definetly keep a "bowl" or a deep plate of water out there so that they can drink/lay in the water... but they don't need to be anywhere they have to swim... they will drown... they should only be in abotu 2 in of water... and that needs to be their choice. OK wow a lot of info there... I hope this helps.