Posted by:
strange_wings
at Thu Jan 18 18:45:01 2007 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by strange_wings ]
First off, a little about the baby turtles. They're Orante Box turtles, laid by my female in the outdoor pen... supposedly the previous Fall. May 8th I checked my turtle pen and was surprised to find hatchlings crawling out from under a small pile of rock and flagstone pieces (moved there during that Winter), upon moving the stones and light digging I found 7 altogether. The next day I found a wild hatchling in the middle of our large black top driveway, it was tired and looked as if the heat was starting to get to it. So I soaked and added it to the rest of my bunch inside, it perked up and to this day is doing great.
Intial setup was a large rubber maid tub, heat mat under warm side, normal 40watt light bulb on during the day for additional heat and extra light, and a 18" florescent desert glow 8.0 suspended 8" above the substrate. During the summer in this setup all but one ate veggies and greens voraciously. Even though the tub was large it was still a bit cramped for 8 hatchlings, so all insects where hand fed to each turtle, one at a time, outside of the tub to prevent fighting and to make sure each got the same amount.
Late August I moved them to a 60gal tank, this provided more running room, better length for a heat gradient and easier to keep proper humidity in. Again with heat mat under the warm
end, a red bulb on that end to help keep the temp in the 90s during the day and 84-88F at night. Florescent tube was put over water dish and main walking path to insure they would
get exposure, but closer at 7-6" from the substrate. Regular 40watt bulb was added to other end of the aquarium to provide more light during the day and raise the ambient air temp 4 degrees. A long 48" florescent tube is used to add light during the day as well, this isn't used for UVB as it's too far from the substrate to be of any use. Hides are at each end with lots of fake plant cover.
Upon moving to the larger aquarium they became more shy and every single baby refused veggies, occasionally one or two of them will still pick at the veggies I offer but with no real interest overall. They are not fed on pellets of any kind as they will not eat them and generally seem repelled by the smell. At this time they all seem to be in carnivorous mode. This of course has them growing, which brings me to the problem.
The size difference bothers me.
Shown together in the pic are the largest and smallest of the turtles, the others are only slightly smaller than the largest. The largest's carapace is 2 and 5/8th", the smallest being around 1 and 3/8th".
The smaller one is very shy and is occasionally bullied away from the food, so I feed it with hemastats behind a plant so it feels more secure and can't see me. All feedings are monitored to make sure every single one of them gets plenty, so it's unlikely lack of food keeping it smaller. Also I find it in the same hiding places as the others, it's not forced to hide in less desirable hiding places because of the others. At the moment I'm considering putting it back in the original tub by itself and seeing if that has any effect on growth.
My only conclusion is maybe it's stress? Could this really keep it that much smaller? Or could it be because this was the one turtle that didn't want to eat veggies over the summer?
Any suggestions would be appreciated
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 Baby box turtle growth question - strange_wings, Thu Jan 18 18:45:01 2007 
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