Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just started working for the herp world's enemy (Petco), and I was hoping you could help me with some of their turtles. They hired me because they need some one to straighten out their reptile situation, and most of my experience is in lizards, snakes, and tortoises. Anyway, they are selling yellow-marginated box turtles (Terrapene carolina) and African helmeted turtles (Pelomedusa subrufa). When dry, both species have flaky shells. This doesn't seem right, and if it's not, how can I fix it? Also, Petco is selling these turtles as pond turtles so they are maintaining them in a cold-water display with one heat lamp that can only heat one turtle at a time. Should these guys be in warmer water? Would the box turtles do better in an aquarium-type display?

Any information you can give me about these turtles' health needs would help me out a lot. I've only worked there for 3 days, but I was ready to quit on the first. The first day I was there I cleaned 7 dead reptiles out of their enclosures, and took 4 sick geckos home to be hand-fed.

well i applaud your efforts. going "into the belly of the beast" knowing full well what you might be getting into is a brave and honorable thing indeed. i'm sure you can helps lots of animals and people this way.

As far as the turtles go,
i have never heard of a "yellow mnarginated box turtle"
but if it Terrepene carolina you are dealing with you want a substrate that HOLDS MOISTURE. Not alfalfa pellets, or sand or bark or carpet. You should try to get them to use sphagnum moss, or better, topsoil. Peeling often results from long term dehydration. Soak these animals for half hour every other day and spray ithe cage each morning. Keep the temsp in the 70s to low 80's. As cool as high sixties at night is fine; there is a large risk of dehydration with overly warmed box turtles.
There should be a LARGE water dish (enough for the turtle to completely soak itself and turen around inside...sink this dish to the level of the substrate). Don't expect it to eat lots of greens, try mushrooms, fruit and live insects and earthworms.
box turtles often try to escape through glass walls so opaque sided cages are better.

a large basking area is good, ther eshould be room to accomodate several turtles at a time.temps in high 70 are good for water basking spot should get to near 95 - 100 F. the air in general should remain in the 80s and should not cool below the 70's at night.
oh and ditch any small gravel that petco is known to use. you don't want to run the risk of the turtles eating it and becoming impact5ed on top of all the pther potential prooblems. go for clean bottom or that large smooth river rock.
tirtles do have a tendency to eat small gravel.

I will definitely do what I can for these turtles. Are there any books you would recommend I take to my boss for back up? So far I've gotten the "well, we've always done it this way" routine from management when I come to them with a change, and I've literally had to pull books off of their own shelves to show them what they need to be doing. And thanks for your words of encouragement as well. I was very reluctant to start work there because I felt I was going over to the enemy, but if I can help out the critters and educate some customers it might turn out okay.

Thanks a lot!

Oh, and the yellow marginated box turtle you haven't heard of is the same turtle at the top of the forum page; the brown one with the pretty yellow stripes on its head. I looked that turtle up in one of the store books hoping to find some info, and yellow and marginated is what it identified it as. I think Petco just calls them Asian Box Turtles.

Thanks again!

I totally wrote down the wrong species. The species I meant to write down was Cuora flavomarginata. I knew when I was typing Terrapene carolina that it sounded too American for an Asian turtle. Anyway, if you have any info about that species, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks again!!

there is some stuff to get straight here

Firstly,
the turtle in the pic at this forum is a cuora amboinenesis
NOT a flavomarginata

check out the WCT galleries here for the differences:
for care of amboinensis try their care sheet here but read through the posts i have made on this forum about this species.
the key thing to remember is that they are MORE AQUATIC than other box turtles and will spend 70 -90 percent of the time IN WATER. but keep it shallow (only a little deeper than their carapace height; they are not great swimmers.)
they do need some land space too
for food the favorites are earthworms, melon and fish but they consume lots of water plants in the wild so try to feed them some of what the store sells (the elodea/anachris crap is a good start)and these guys must be kept warm. warmer than terepene carolina for sure.

if its flavomarginata (usually called "chinese box turtles" or "flavos" in the turtle world)
you might start here:
cttc on flavos
flavos will eat all sorts of stuff but
stress fruits and some veggies to the customers but mention that they will prefer insects and meat. a good way to go about it is to mix them up in a bowl (bugs surrounded by plant matter.)they need about half land half water. they are more terrestrail than ambos (cuora amboinensis)but not as much as terrepene carolina.

oh and here 's the WCT cuora/cistoclemmys gallery so you can be sure of what you've got:
cuora at WCT

you will need to scroll down to see all the pics on that page.

p.s. i won't compromise your identity but could you tell me what state your in? (privately, via the "contact" link if you prefer)