All Turtles Message Board

metalgina · Guest Joined: 07 Feb 2008 Posts: 1

Hi! I'm new to this forum. My name is Gina and I have a box turtle that I rescued from a local creek where some boys were throwing rocks at her so I chased them off and brought her home and have done my best to care for her. I'm assuming she's female because I looked up how to tell what gender box turtles are and the information I found was that males tend to have green or grey colored eyes and females have brown eyes. My turtle has brown eyes so I assume she's female.

The reason I'm so happy to have found this message board is because I really need to share my experiences caring for her with other people that care about these miraculous little animals.

First off, I never realized a reptile would have so much personallity! She has the cutest personally and has really surprised me and the longer I have her the more I just love her! I think she's the best pet/friend I've ever had! All that being said, she has totally contradictory habits as far as I would expect a turtle to have. For one thing, she totally HATES the water! She likes to drink out of a saucer, but if I try and soak her she throws a first class fit, something along the lines of a teething 2 year old. Also, she doesn't like vegetables or insects at ALL! She likes bread. The fluffier and fresher it is the better she likes it, she especially likes those fluffy sugar donuts. I'll just buy a fresh donut and take the fluffy inside out, making sure not to give her the glazed sugar part as I'm not sure if that would be good for her, and give just the fluffy part to her and that's all she really eats. So far she's lived like this for 4 years and seems pretty happy. I don't keep her in an 'environment' of any kind. I've tried that and she really just wants the run of the house so to speak. If I try and put her in any kind of closed in area she throws a fit and fights until she finds a way out. As I said, I can't believe how much personallity she has!

Some things I think I need to do with her is, make her a spot in my garden in my front yard and get a mist sprayer since she refuses to soak. Her skin gets really dry and I literally have to apply water on her skin with my fingers a little at a time for her to get any kind of moisture, is there some kind of cream I could use? I also need to take the turtle kibble I get for her at my local pet store and soak it in water and make her a fresh bisquit with the soaked turtle kibble mixed in with the batter so she gets the right kind of nutrition.

So far, after having her for 4+ years, she seems really happy and healthy but her skin is really dry. I hope, when the weather warms up, she won't mind a mister (not a husband but something that sprays a light water mist!), but she really doesn't like water except to drink. I find this really unusual for a turtle! It's almost like she thinks she's a cat or something!

Has anyone else experienced this with their turtle? Any tips or feedback I would really appreciate!

thanks,
gina Smile

STRAYKINGFISHER · Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 9:38 am Post subject:

Welcome to the forum, I don't have experience with box turtles but I do have some links for you:

http://boxturtlesite.info/index.html

http://www.boxturtlesite.info/hou.html

I hope you like it here. Very Happy

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Teardrop_089 · Level 1 Joined: 09 Jul 2008 Posts: 7

I just got a turtle last week and he seems to really hate the water sometimes too. I set him down in his tank and he freaks out and heads straight for the corner to try and dig his way out, then finally climbs up on a shell or his rocks and lays there. He'll jump in the water in a heartbeat to go after his food though, haha... maybe it's just something he has to get used to. Or maybe his water is too cold and is painful to him, could that be why?