with the day off.
Made a new batch of boxie food balls. I used a large bag of mixed vegetables and I put half the bag in the blender at a time with 4 whole eggs shell and all in each batch, blended really well untill it was like a greenish yellow malt, mmmmm. then poured that into a five gallon bucket with 2 pounds of ground venison and 1 cup each of three different box turtle foods, reptomin, wardleys and zoo med. Then mixed well, see pic. I didn't add any mixed fruit this time since I will be throwing in strawberries and mulberries into the pen when they are fresh and available in my back yard. Then I make balls out of the food and put on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper and put in the freezer for a couple hours, then when they are rock hard I take them off the cookie sheet and put them in a gallon zip lock bag and put them back in the freezer. That way the balls won't be stuck togather, and twice a week I will just get out a ball the night before and thaw and then feed first thing in the morning. The box turtles go nuts over this food and chow down and it's very good balanced nutrition. Notice the tiny white flecks in the food, that is the tiny pieces of eggshell, which is a great source of calcium, and the rest of the egg helps the balls stick togather plus is good protein too. This is the best way to get box turtles to consistently eat there mixed vegetables, they don't even know they are eating them really. You will notice in the pic that I also made some baby sized balls for the baby boxie, lol, cute little balls for the cute little boxie.
Also I set up my yearling boxies new outdoor home (last pic). This is the same cage I raised up his parents in 10 years ago. I will keep him in this for the summer then next year he will go into a larger wooden pen with a hardward cloth top for a couple years and then will be big enough to go into the big pen with the adults. The cage is an old ferret cage from when my wife had a ferret, it has a nice door in the wire top to get in and out and allows the sunshine in and protects the babies, and the plastic sides are tall enough so the turtles feel secure and don't try to get out, the only thing I had to modify is to drill a bunch of holes in the bottom and sides for drainage during rainstorms. The cage is located on the patio with the deck overhead and faces northeast so gets sun all morning but then shade in the afternoon.



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Jeff Benfer
gartersnakemorph.com

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