Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey all, I'm new here, and I had a few questions.

First off, I have two Ornate Box Turtles. The first, the male, I found on the road about three months ago, and the second one, the female, I purchased earlier today.

The female's eyes aren't opening all the way, which I'm guessing are the beginnings of Vitamin A deficiency, and her beak is a little long.

I started off by sort of toying with her so she was pissed at me, and when she started snapping at me, I held out an earthworm, which she took several bites of.

Is there an easier way of getting some food in her? And will simply feeding her harder foods like apples cause her beak problem to go away?

Also, I live in Kansas, and buying or selling a box turtle here is illegal, so what sort of permits will I need to get, and how would I go about getting them?

Finally, since my turtles are technically illegal, how to I make sure they're okay if they have no vet to go to?

Please respond.

-IOC

"The female's eyes aren't opening all the way, which I'm guessing are the beginnings of Vitamin A deficiency"

i wouldn't jump to this conclusion
while pet store turtles are often undernourished and may suffer from vitimin deficiencies the mor elikely cause of closed eyes and most important thing to attend to is dehydration.
i would alllow her several opportunitues to saok wach day.
you might add a SMALL amount of pedialyte or gatorade to the water before she goes in.

"and her beak is a little long."

apples will not be hard enough to slow the beak growth. i dn't advocate deliberate beak trimming unless the turtle is unable to eat but feeding her insects and fruit on concrete or rough rocks is helpful (over the long haul) in smoothing out and overgrown beak.

you may find she prefers insect larva (try to get superworms) to earth worms as she is an ornate.
you might want to dip the worms in a high quality baby food (choose pumpkin, squash, berry, sweet potato varieties)
before feeding her.

if you suspect she's ill, keep her awat from the male for awhile.
i think its a good idea to get a vet to look at her (both of them really) anyway.
i don't think most vets will report you about havinga turtle...they don't need to know if or where or when you purchased it.
go to arav
to try to find a reptile vet in kansas
don't let any vet give her vitimin a injections.

>>The female's eyes aren't opening all the way, which I'm guessing are the beginnings of Vitamin A deficiency, and her beak is a little long.
>>
>>I started off by sort of toying with her so she was pissed at me, and when she started snapping at me, I held out an earthworm, which she took several bites of.
>>
>>Is there an easier way of getting some food in her? And will simply feeding her harder foods like apples cause her beak problem to go away?
>>
>>Also, I live in Kansas, and buying or selling a box turtle here is illegal, so what sort of permits will I need to get, and how would I go about getting them?
>>
>>Finally, since my turtles are technically illegal, how to I make sure they're okay if they have no vet to go to?

The vet doesn't need to know you bought the one turtle. I don't think it's illegal to have as pets the Ornate box turtle in KS. Your turtles, as any new pet would be, should be taken to a vet from day one for a wellness check up. A good exotic vet can help a lot with the eye problem, the over grown beak and even with reluctance to eat.

Are you keeping the turtles outside or inside?

And unless you intend to breed turtles, I don't think you need anything more then a hunting license to have two turtles. Call your State wildlife department for accurate info or read up on it at your local library. Most have state regs on file.
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Tess
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