Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'd like to know if there are any recordings of turtles (especially malaysian boxies) being cannibalistic. On one odd turn of events (this happened about a year ago) i kept 4 malaysian boxies (sad to say i only have one left, one died of sickness and the other died when i was away a week ago, the other? well...), bout 15cm (6". Sexes are unclear, but i'm assuming that all 4 are females (tail length & cloaca position). When i was away last year, i left my babies to the care of a caretaker. When i came back, i've heard shocking news. One of my babies died, and she claimed that the day before it was quite fine, and the next day it was all bones. I didnt believe her claims, but a few days after that, when i was cleaning the tank, i saw what i believe was a piece of vertebrae bone (those bones that make up the spine). It was a very clean piece, no meat or anything, just bone. The story seems to be horrifically true. Since the carcase was thrown away, i wasnt sure to what extent the damage was... until today. I've been looking around my reptile room, and saw a whole vertebrae (the main vertical backbone part, from the neck to the tail, the one that sticks with the turts shell). It was suprisingly clean, no meat at all, with a little dark skin which was the shells colouration. Untill now its still a mistery. Theres no way a rat may have eaten it, the place is secure and if a rat did came, it should have taken my baby CB RES that i've hatched, which was easier to access. There were no ants or any other creepy crawlies, since if they did eat the turt, they would have stayed longer and i could have seen some small swarms. The only explanation i have is cannibalism, but the others were all fed the day before (at least thats what she claimed). That turt was the first boxie to go. Now all i have is a single female (i think) who runs the tank alone.
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My "babies" :
1.0.0 Indo BTS (Tiliqua gigas gigas)
0.0.1 Rainbow skinks (Mabuya multifasciata)
1.0.2 RES (Trachemys scripta elegans)
0.0.2 Amboina box turtles (Cuora amboinensis)
1.0.0 Chinese softshell (Trionyx sinensis)
1.0.0 Asian leaf turtle (Cyclemys dentata)
1.0.0 Leopard gecko (Eublepharis macularius)
0.0.1 Whites Tree Frog (Litoria caerulea)
And still growing...

wanted to point out that herps dont eat around bone like we do, they eat everything whole unless it is simply to big to get down.. but even then some will try.

not to mention in order to avoid losing it's bounty it would be dragging the different limbs and what not away from the carcass.
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My Site
1.2.1 Terrapene Carolina Triunguis
0.1 Nymphicus hollandicus
1.1 Melopsittacus undulatus
1.0 American Cocker Spaniels
1.0 American Short Hair? Cat
1.1 Rouen Ducks

i don't know if this will answer your question but i have had 2 box turtles that had died from some type of illness, think it was some type of respitory on my asian and bad care on a ornate both given to me from another person, they died pretty quickly and didn't a chance to get them better. when i discovered them dead my other boxies had eaten the heads but touched nothing else.