Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a male eastern box turtle that was wild caught in the summer of 2005. In spring of 06 a friend gave him to me because they were moving. I went ahead and kept him, i've had box turtles before.
He's been in a outdoor pen in my yard, hibernating. I checked on him about a month ago and he didn't look like he had enough fat to last him the rest of the winter so I brought him in and cleaned him up. I let him soak every day, and I mist him every day, because they like it humid. under his heat lamp(which is on 24 hrs a day)it is about 90 degrees, the coolest part of his enclosure goes down to about 60 at night. I offer him some of his favorite foods, nearly every day, but all that he's eaten is about 7 crickets and maybe a nibble of tomatoe. anyone know how I can get him to eat more? should he be warmer?
thanks in advice!

Keep the turtle hydrated,very important,warm,and make sure he gets 12-14 hrs of light. Since he is wild caught then he is use to hibernation. Breaking the turtle of being in hibernation will take some time. There are different theories on hibernating or not. If you decide not to hibernate then you should not hibernate him next year... Keep offering food and also make sure he is not sick. He will come around but it does take some time.

It would be curious to know where in this world you are and if the turtle is from the same general place. I've seen some Boxes that will eat chopped meat hamberger or deer and refuse all else even live food. Especially old males. I would like to hear thoughts on this for food long term with vitamins and stuff easily mixed in. I will also read with great interest further details and reasoning about opinions of not hibernating a turtle that was not alowed to hibernate previously.
Thanks

>>It would be curious to know where in this world you are and if the turtle is from the same general place. I've seen some Boxes that will eat chopped meat hamberger or deer and refuse all else even live food. Especially old males. I would like to hear thoughts on this for food long term with vitamins and stuff easily mixed in. I will also read with great interest further details and reasoning about opinions of not hibernating a turtle that was not alowed to hibernate previously.
>>Thanks
>>

Hamburger is just a pile of fat for them to eat, not really good for them. Meat in general isn't good for turtles unless it's whole meat such as a whole mouse or in the case of an aquatic turtle whole fish. The whole animal is loaded with the proper balance of vitamins & minerals.. but just a piece of meat isn't.
Long term regular feeding of bits of meat can lead to gout, liver & heart disease.

As for one who's woken up & isn't eating.. I am always for a vet visit to make sure there are no disease to deal with. Better to be safe than sorry on that.
I have one who I was going to allow to hibernate last year when she sat outside in cold rain got herself sick then wouldn't eat. After a few days of medication I finally got her to eat using waxworms.. you just have to keep trying different foods until you hit on one they decide is good.
She ate a lot of wax worms for a couple of weeks then as she felt better she got back to a normal varied diet.
If you need info on diet check out

Box Turtle

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PHRatz

"If you decide not to hibernate then you should not hibernate him next year... "

Huh? There is absolutely no reason a turtle shouldn't be allowed to hibernate just because it didn't hibernate the season before, as long as its healthy enough to do so.

As far as keeping the turtle in because it didn't look fat enough....I don't really think turtles "fatten up" for the winter. I keep a weight chart on mine and reweigh them in October to reassure myself that there hasn't been any significant weight loss. I had one who was sick this summer, and although she seemed to have recovered, her weight was like 40-50 grams lower than normal, so I am "spoiling" Dottie inside this winter with plenty of salads, crickets, superworms and wax worms.

I live in northern virginia and the box turtle is from the same area.
I had heard that during "warm" winters, box turtle use up there fat supply quicker than other winters. For virginia, its been a warm winter, flowers are blooming four months early. Anyway, once I hibernated a box turtle, and she came out of it being fatter than he is now. So, maybe looking at how much fat he has isn't very accurate, but I just want to make sure he's ok.
(He ate four more crickets yesterday, its not much, but its something)

Well, it doesn't hurt to keep one in a winter,
if you are feeling unsure, but as many of us have
found, you can alleviate worries about weight by
keeping a weight chart.

Most of mine flutuate within a range of 5 grams.
The one that had a significant weight drop,
I kept in.

This is your first winter with this turtle (if I am
remembering correctly), and alot of people might
keep a turtle in the first winter.

As long as he is eating some on a somewhat regular
basis, I wouldn't worry.

In the years I've had my turtles, I've been weighing them on a monthly basis as part of a general health-monitoring regimen, to have an idea of what is normal and healthy for each of them and to make sure they were all within their healthy weight range prior to hibernation.
A healthy turtle's weight will fluctuate during the months it is up and awake, but should remain stable overall (unless it is still growing). In other words, a turtle may lose some weight immediately prior to or during hibernation, but will gain it back and maintain it during the warmer months.

Really, the only way that you will be able to tell if your turtle is underweight is by having a frame of reference, ie., knowing what a NORMAL weight range is. You can't tell by looking!
Now that your turtle has eaten, you should probably keep it up, since it needs to digest the food it has eaten.

As for the weather: I'm in VA too (central), and none of mine have come up (yet), but they are all still outside and will remain there, unless one comes up in obvious distress. Keep in mind that air temperatures and ground temperatures are very different, and ground temperatures change VERY gradually, so a 60 degree day doesn't mean the ground is 60 degrees that day, too.

Your turtle can most assuredly hibernate next year, presuming it is healthy.

The first year I had Hector, he had an ear infection and I had to keep him inside, but he's been hibernating every year since without any problems.

Thanks for all your responses.
By the way, this is something that I learned about eastern box turtles last year when I hibernated one. Its that they don't only wait for the weather to get warmer, but they also wait for rain before coming out of hibernation. (After several 80 degree days, there was still no sign of my box turtle. I thought that she had run away, but it rained a few days latter and then there she was!)