Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Goodmorning all......I have to confess something that I did that all of you are against, but I just couldn't walk away! I took my dog to be groomed this past week and as usual I looked in all the nooks and crannies at the animals, etc. that they sell there. Well......they still had a box turtle that had been there for a long time, and as usual I stood there and looked at it and talked to it and then left to do my errands while waiting for my dog.

I tried not to think about the turtle, I really did, but I just couldn't get her off my mind. When I returned to pick up my 4-legged baby I asked them if they would consider lowering the price. They did so I went ahead and bought her. Now, I know I shouldn't have as it encourages the people to try to sell more, but I was looking at it from the turtles point of view. She had no dish of water to soak in, no food other than iceburg lettuce (that is all I have ever seen in that dish)and no place to hide at all. No place!! She was just out in the open in the aquarium. I just could not leave her there to come to the same fate that I am sure a baby sulcata tortoise they had had for months met.

So......I now have another boxie and a question for you all. Should I go ahead and keep her separate from the other boxies until spring when all have come up from hibernating? At present she is in one of the wooden cages. She is very healthy appearing and eats like a little pig. I am not sure if I should let her hibernate later on or not. I of course would keep her active until she decides it is time to quit eating for the winter and then would of course wait the 2 weeks to let her empty her system before I let her hibernate. Anyway.....what do you all think I should do. Oh, in comparison of her size and the size of my other boxies, I would say she is about 3 years old. I will be waiting to hear what any of you all have to offer. Although I know I will be hanging my head in the end as I know I did wrong by buying her in the first place and I am just really sorry about that. (Not about buying her, but about buying her from the pet store.) But.......I could only think of her situation at the time. I hope all of you are having a good day and are looking forward to the week-end! Take care!......9boxies

>> I will be waiting to hear what any of you all have to offer. Although I know I will be hanging my head in the end as I know I did wrong by buying her in the first place and I am just really sorry about that. (Not about buying her, but about buying her from the pet store.) But.......I could only think of her situation at the time. I hope all of you are having a good day and are looking forward to the week-end! Take care!......9boxies

Hey there.. please don't hang your head and feel bad about what you did.
Yes it's true that when we buy something from a pet store it only encourages them and we can tell ourselves it's noble to not give in to encouraging them...but sometimes you see one that you just cannot make yourself walk away from.

What's the lesser evil?
The pet trade is NOT going to stop no matter what we might think of it. Some people have no problem with the pet trade some people can't stand it.. either way it doesn't matter because it's going to continue no matter what we each think about it.
So saving the life of one is something we have to do once in a while.
Was it wrong to save her life? I can't say I absolutely think you are wrong. Sometimes saving that one who's pulling at your heart strings is what you have to do.

On to the most important thing here.
I absolutely would keep this new one separated from the others because she's been in a pet store.. there is no telling what she might be carrying just because of that.
I am kind of lax on quarantining local wild boxes because unless they are injured it's rare to find a sick wild box turtle in my neck of the woods. Each time I've taken in a wild one I test it for parasites before it sees the other boxies here but the local boxies just never test positive for parasites. One vet I know says it's because the hot sun kills parasite ova that's in the soil out in the wild. Maybe.. who knows but I still test them right away in the beginning just to be 100% sure.

But since this one did not come from the wild.. I'd be very leery of allowing her near the others until I'd kept her quarantined for several months & had a parasite test run.
Good luck with her, please keep us updated on her.
Have you chosen a name yet?
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PHRatz

One more thing.. because she came from a pet store I wouldn't even think about hibernating her until next year.
Since she's spent months with nothing to eat other than lettuce I would just work on the assumption that she's not healthy enough to hibernate this year.
Next year after she's had a full year of good food that you've provided & her nutritional health is optimum.. then I would let her hibernate.
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PHRatz

Thanks for the advice PHRatz! Yes, I will keep her separate from the others then. And I won't hibernate her. Guess it is a good thing that I still have lots of mealies for her to eat. Oh, and Squirt is still kept apart from the others in her rubbermaid home so she won't hibernate this year either. As for the veggies and fruits.....well, the new box turtle loves tomatoes and cantaloupe, and yellow squash so far. I gave her 5 mealies the first day with just a couple bites of tomato, but the 3rd day I gave her 5 mealies with the cantaloupe, tomato and yellow squash and she ate everything I put out for her. She really has a good appetite. I guess that is because she had been fed only the lettuce all these months. She is very healthy looking and active though. Guess that is part of the reason I went ahead and took her. I didn't want to see her go downhill. Plus....she looks exactly like my others. I am going to build a 2nd pen this year so I can keep the sexes separate. I have an idea that the males are going to be mature enough this year to want to breed and I don't need any more turtles. I think I have more than I need, but will see that all are taken good care of. I just will have to stop looking into nooks and crannies when I take my dog to be groomed next month.

Thanks for the quick reply. Not to worry......the new turtle .....(oh, no name yet....got any suggestions?).....will not hibernate this year. Thanks again! .....9boxies

What can I say? Ratz covered pretty much all of it. If you have time, drop us a pic of the new girl. Me likey the pics!

One more thing to consider...do you now have to change your name to 10boxies? ; )
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0.1.0 ornate box turtle
1.0.0 eastern box turtle
1.0.0 Yellow belly slider
0.1.0 Red belly cooter
0.1.0 Australian shepard
1.12.0 chickens
3.2.0 children (do I still count the married ones?)
1.0.0 husband

>>One more thing to consider...do you now have to change your name to 10boxies? ; )
>>-----

Frankly I was wondering since she took in her Hobo.. doesn't that make 11? Will she have to change to 10 or 11?

You know I don't feel so bad taking in more.
I'm not the only one who does that when it's necessary.
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PHRatz

I'm not really great at names. I like to choose names based on the circumstances. Hope the one who took off 2 years ago was so sick when I took her in that I hoped she'd live. She did.
Charity was my charity case, Hobo was the bum. LOL
Scooter my yellow mud was a baby when I got him, he scooted around never swimming in his tank & since Scooter fit a boy or girl.. I thought that was good name for him.
We felt like fate brought our tortoise to us so we called her Destiny. Chip.. well he had that piece of plastron dangling off him that looked like a tortilla chip..

The one I took in last month that did not make it was brought to me by one of my students who works at a vet hospital named Angel.. I was going to name her Angel but the of course she didn't make it.
Anyway maybe that line of thinking could bring a name to mind for you.
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PHRatz

:::::The one I took in last month that did not make it was brought to me by one of my students who works at a vet hospital named Angel.. I was going to name her Angel but the of course she didn't make it. ::::

Over the years I have learned to never name things Angel . . . whenever I name something Angel thats what it becomes.

>>:::::The one I took in last month that did not make it was brought to me by one of my students who works at a vet hospital named Angel.. I was going to name her Angel but the of course she didn't make it. ::::
>>
>>Over the years I have learned to never name things Angel . . . whenever I name something Angel thats what it becomes.

Aha. so I shouldn't have been thinking it & I shouldn't have called her that.. I did call her that.
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PHRatz

Please don't feel bad. While in priciple, its better
not to buy turtles from pet stores, you did it for the
right reason and as PHratz said, it ultimately won't
make a difference. If not you, someone else would have
purchased her and that someone else might not have given
her the awesome home you will.

Plus there are people who do breed for the pet trade.
There is a breeder in my state who sells captive bred
box turtles to pet stores. Is it wrong to purchese
captive bred turtles in stores? My biggest problem with
the breeder who does this is that I think many turtles
suffer in pet stores, I've seen sick box turtles in pet
stores before and the store owners clearly didn't know
how to deal with it, or for that matter....care.

Anyway, enjoy your new addition and feel good about giving
her a good home!

Since you got them to lower the price and they have had the box turtle for a while means they have lost all profit they could have made on it and probably lost money on the turtle. This generally discourages stores from making the same purchase again. I know that holds true at my store. For example we had Mantella frogs in once, they were there for about 8 months. They ended up dying while I was on vacation (I don't think anyone misted them enough), anyway we will never have them again for sure. Another example are coneheaded lizards. We ordered them in. We sold one for $10 to a good home (they were priced at $45), we lost all money on that one, but at least it went to a good home. We still have the other one, and have had her for a good 9 months or so. Again, we have lost all money on her. She has laid eggs that have hatched several times now though But my point is we will never order them again unless someone specifically requests one.

these are the baby coneheads from the first clutch:

Those are beautiful! Do you know the latin name on them?

Do they come from France? Bwahaha, get it?

>>Do they come from France? Bwahaha, get it?

Bwhahahahahahaha!!
I got it Veldar!
ROFL!!
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PHRatz

sorry don't get it . . . please explain it to me though

Old Saturday Night Live routine...the Coneheads, in explaining their, er, unusual customs and habits, would say "We're from France".

I probably wasn't old enough to was SNL when they were doing that then . . . hehe sorry had to throw a "your old" joke in their somewhere (hey ratz i'm 21 now!)

There was also a Coneheads movie that came out about 12 years ago...I don't think it was a box office smash.

There was also a Coneheads movie that came out about 12 years ago...I don't think it was a box office smash.

12 years ago I was 9 years old. I was to busy trying to find snakes in the middle of the city to watch movies when I was 9, lol. I wonder if blockbuster has it. I'm curious now.

Their latin name is : laemanctus longipes
there is another species too, serratis i think it is. But I have the longipes.