Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all,

I just took some updated photos of three of my four young E. Box Turtles (Terrapene c. carolina). I also updated their growth data and will include this information after the photos (for those who may have missed it, I have been collecting monthly mass data on these four since November 2006 when they were about 12 weeks old Previous Thread).

This little girl (pretty sure it is female ) has gone from 13.9 g to 80.2 g in 8 months!

This one was 17.9 g in November and is now 67.2 g.

This turtle is going to be incredible looking as an adult. The yellows are becoming quite pronounced and the carapace is very light and contrasting. The turtle was 14.7 g originally and is now 59.7 g.

Here are the updated growth data:

Hope you enjoyed!
Ryan
P.S. Any comments about their phyical condition (good/bad?) are very much welcome!

hey nice charts wows must have a lot of time to spare. what program do you use excel? my one yearling has high yellows too ill post a few soon . thanks

... but I can make time for the important things. Takes about 5 minutes every month. Yes, that is an excel spreadsheet.

Those are wonderful photos!
What a great camera you have & talent for taking pictures.
Thanks for posting!
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PHRatz

It's my pleasure
I'm glad you all like photos so much because I sure like taking them!

>>It's my pleasure
>>I'm glad you all like photos so much because I sure like taking them!

I do, I love to see pictures & I just this minute realized why I had a crazy dream last night.
I looked at all these baby photos yesterday, last night I dreamed that I found a baby box turtle that was the size of a roly poly... had to be the baby pics I was looking at or I've lost my mind.
One or the other LOL!
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PHRatz

Great pics! My guys sure wouldn't hold still for photos like that!

Nanci
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*****
1.0 Classic Corn, 0.1 Lavender, 0.0.1 Cali King, 0.1 Nelson's Milk
1.0 Tricolor Hog, 0.1 Eastern Hog, 1.0 Florida King
0.1 Eastern Box Turtle, 1.0 Florida Box Turtle
0.0.2 Desert Torts, 2.0 Feral Pigeons

Ha, yep, it was an ordeal...

Great looking kids! ! ! and thanks for sharing the data.

Great photos! Your little ones appear to be very healthy, and their growth looks great.

Do you take other measurements as well? I collect data on carapace length, plastron length, height, width, as well as weight on the group here.

Thanks for sharing photos and info!

Cheers!

Hi Steph,
I had considered it. I take straight and maximum carapace length; carapace width; plastron length and width; height; and mass in my field research but I opted for mass only with these guys. I mass them after two days of no feeding and no soaks to keep things on somewhat of an even keel. When they were younger and squirmier, I decided that my digital callipers were too difficult to use on them. Now that they are a little more manageable, I may incorporate these data.
Ryan

This is true...they are wiggly little creatures!

Thanks again for sharing.

do you keep them all together? have any pics where they are housed in. thanks

nice hatchlings, looks like they may be starting to pyramid though.

Hmmm, though I welcome your opinion, that is quite the unsubstantiated charge.
Would you be able to indicate which photo depicts a scute that is becoming even slightly raised? Lest my eyes deceive me, there are none (save for the keels on the vertebral scutes). They're already feeding on various squashes, sweet potatoes, collards, etc. and their meals are always loaded with calcium and the requisite vitamin D3 (along with sun exposure). Their proteinaceous food items are live, whole foods such as calcium dusted earthworms, waxworms, silkworms, butterworms, etc. Add to that the fact they are fed every 2-3 days, I cannot fathom how their growth can be described as "pyramiding".
Thanks!

I don't really see any pyramiding...there is one view where the background makes the shell look irregular, but all of the shells look excellent to me.

When I take a good look at the shells of my formerly wild turtles, I can see that their growth was not necessarily perfectly uniform when they were young....given that young turtles are presumed to have a diet that is much higher in protein, maybe a little pyramiding is actually normal. Who knows...

>>When I take a good look at the shells of my formerly wild turtles, I can see that their growth was not necessarily perfectly uniform when they were young....given that young turtles are presumed to have a diet that is much higher in protein, maybe a little pyramiding is actually normal. Who knows...
>>

I kind of worried for a little time about Kibbles, last fall's accidentally dug up baby.
I look at my formerly wild adults & none of them look completely perfect either.
ALL the wild adults I've seen in the last 5-6 years or so appear to me to have a slight degree of pyramiding. 5-6 years ago was when I started to take notice of that on purpose. I see a lumpiness to Hobo & he's never been anyone's pet, couldn't have been he's just too wild. So that means he grew up with lumps in his native land without humans feeding him.
Things that make ya go hmmmmmmmmm
I chalk that up to a combination of high protein diet (insects & carrion) and a lack of water in their native habitat.

I looked at a lot of hatchling/yearling photos from different sources and concluded that my Kibbles looks fine just like Ryan's babies look fine to me too.
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PHRatz