Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My male eastern box turtle's eyes changed colors. They were the "normal" red of the male. They are now white. Any thoughts?
We have had Timmy for 6 years. Have 3 others 2f and 1m. They have not changed.
thanks

This can be attributed to a lack of sunlight, and/or a lack of plant pigments (ex. beta carotene) in the diet. Make sure you're feeding them lots of deep red and even purple/bluish fruits and veggies. Blueberries, blackberries, and strawberries are great foods for box turtles. If you already currently offer these things, or things like them, and his eyes are still going white, take him to the vet. Have them run some bloodwork on him to look for possible problems.

Good luck, I've seen this before. It was with a few turtles that were confiscated from a guy who was keeping them in a box in the closet. Who knows what he was feeding them, but their colors were almost completely washed out. It took months to brighten them up. I'm not suggesting that this is what you're doing...this could be age-related.

Funny this was brought up while hiking/herping a week ago a found this guy. His eyes were white and apeared to be very light. He seemed reasonably healthy and I attributed the eye color to him just coming out of hibernation. Here is the pic,

I have two males here that have very light eyes, but it doesn't seem to affect their overall health or interest in mating: in fact, the one with the lightest eyes is one of the more popular males with the ladies here.