Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I haven't seen Hobo or Wallinda in over a week now but some of the other girls have not yet gone under for winter.
We've had one night that dipped down into the 40s & it's supposed to do that again tonight.
I did mow my turtle pen today hopefully for the last time this year, it was 91 degrees when I went out to do that. I used all the cut grass to replenish the grass linings in all the little houses they have.
I'm still nervous but every morning I go out to check on them, when I find one I take a good look at her face & so far no signs of respiratory illness- eyes look good, noses look good.
Still crossing my fingers that all of them including Shell E will burrow under as they all should.
Cookie the foster turtle is indoors now, she's not happy about it but she must stay inside because it's only been 4 months since she was so badly injured and so very sick.
Ok..sign me nervously worrying about this whole brumation/hibernation thing but going through with it anyway.
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PHRatz

Not sure where you live but I am in Plano Texas just north of Dallas. All my box turtles were out eating and digging for food yesterday as it was still in the mid 80's. However we just had a cold front come through last night and I woke up to temps in the mid 50's this morning. I am sure this sent my turtles scrambling for there favorite holes. It may warm back up to the 70's later this week but I dont think they will be eating anyore. The first cold snap usually takes my box turtles off eating. It wont be but a few weeks and they will all be underground for good. I always miss them when they go into hibernation.

Allen

I'm about 350 miles southwest of you, I was just in Plano last week! My sister lives there & so we visited her then we all went to the state fair.
A month or so ago my sister found a 3 toed box on a busy street in Plano so she stopped, picked it up and put it on the other side of the road so it wouldn't be hit. She said later she checked to see if there was a smashed box turtle on that road, there was not. YAY

It's 45 right now, it was colder than that earlier this morning.
None of them are out right now and I know for a fact that some wild ones are still coming out this time of year. Last year it was the last week of Oct. when one was found hit by a car still alive but then she didn't live. That says she was still out to be hit by a car as late as the last week of Oct.
I know I need to leave them alone & let them do what they need to do, it's just that this is the first year we're doing this so I'm very very nervous about it.
I feel better that before this cold front hit I was able to pack their little houses with fresh cut grass yesterday. I hate buying hay at the feed store because it molds so badly.
Hopefully everything will work out here & I can stop worrying.
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PHRatz

I have always let mine hibernate and do what they feel is right for them sense I was a kid and I still get a little nervous this time of year. If I had to be honest I would tell you when mine do go down for good in a few weeks I will pile a few inches of mulch, leaves, lawn clippings, etc. over them for added protection. I always miss the little guys over the winter and miss how they greet me every morning at the back door for there breakfast

On a side note it was about 55 degrees and raining yesterday in Plano and I only had four of the nine turtles out. I offered food and none of them took it. This tells me there is only a week or so till they are down for good

The reason I hadn't been letting them hibernate at first was because they had various health problems and also because of the fact that I didn't have a good outdoor pen for them.
Now they're well, we have the pen of my dreams so it's time to allow them to live they way they should. They've been so much happier living outside this year during the summer, they seem to know that seasons have changed... I just can't stop worrying.

I know a couple who have a lot of box turtles in their backyard who told me once around 1999 that some of theirs come out when they aren't supposed to & the ones that do that die. That horrified me at the time- I think the people just didn't know then that a vet can treat them.
Now this year the same people told me that when they come out in winter they take them to the vet and get them treated because they are sick.
What they said then & now is what makes me worry so much. I don't want to lose anyone and I know my fears are irrational so I'll worry until November when I know that all of them, even the wild ones are underground.
Then I'll still go outside & check every day to make sure nobody is out at the wrong time of year.
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PHRatz

>>On a side note it was about 55 degrees and raining yesterday in Plano and I only had four of the nine turtles out. I offered food and none of them took it. This tells me there is only a week or so till they are down for good.

That's another worry for me- Shell E. She was out on Sunday afternoon demanding food. She's the first one we took in, she was dog chewed & it took 2 years for her to heal. She's been mostly indoors from 2001 until this summer- 6 years. I worry that she won't know what to do but then when it got colder she vanished too so.. she should be ok.
Four of yours came out at 55 though, wow.
It's really helpful for me to read what other people's turtles are doing just before they go under.
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PHRatz

Mine have come out at odd times of the winter in the past as well. Especially if it is warmer than normal. I have never had any die though. But I can say when I do notice this behavior I will pick them up as soon as I see them and put them back in there burrows and they will usually stay put. If your turtles are still demanding food I would let them eat. At least thats what I do and have never had a problem. I know some people will tell you that they need to clean there gut before hibernation but there is no one restricting a wild turtles behavior and feeding habits. I figure they have been doing what they do in the wild for hundreds of thousands of years or more. If they are hungry who am I with a mear 15 years of experiance to tell them they can not eat. I let them be as wild and natural as they can be in the back yard.

Just my 2 cents

>>>>If your turtles are still demanding food I would let them eat. At least thats what I do and have never had a problem. I know some people will tell you that they need to clean there gut before hibernation but there is no one restricting a wild turtles behavior and feeding habits. I figure they have been doing what they do in the wild for hundreds of thousands of years or more. If they are hungry who am I with a mear 15 years of experiance to tell them they can not eat. I let them be as wild and natural as they can be in the back yard.
>>
>>Just my 2 cents

I like your 2 cents. I felt the same way, if she's demanding food then who am I to refuse her? I didn't refuse her, today it's supposed to be in the 70s so there's a good chance she'll be out again so I'll make sure she has plenty of water to soak in if she wants to. That will clean her out.

Wallinda refused food a week before I stopped seeing her so if she didn't want to eat that's they way it is. They are outdoors, they can pick off bugs when they see them if they want to.
Even though my girls are tame, aren't all reptiles basically a wild animal? They aren't really domescticated animals so I kind of do things based on what they're "telling" me they want.
Last year Hobo, my wild boy ate a cactus berry less than a week before he went under. He knows what he is doing so I figured if he wanted to eat it, I'm not going to take it away from him.

I don't know exactly what the non captive ones out in the wild are doing so with the box turtles who live here I do things for them basically the way I do things with my tortoise- she knows what she needs/wants and at 70 to 75 lbs I can't really make her do anything she doesn't want to do.
Yet I still worry.. if we can get through this year without a problem, I'll stop worrying so much.
5 years with an ever growing tortoise who does just fine outside year round has made me stop worrying myself silly over her. I can do the same with the turtles, it'll just take time.

I feel like I have coaches here now.. I'm getting into my game.
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PHRatz

I'm here in Central VA in 80 degree weather (what's up with that?) adding leaves to the hibernacula today. Ordinarily it would be less of a chore if the temps. were *normal*, but I'm sweating buckets getting this done.

Mine stopped eating a few weeks ago, although I continued to put out fruit for them, and one or two would take a bite. None of them were really chowing down the way they do in the summer, though.

I did however find two new babies in the pen this weekend...one still sporting an egg tooth! Go figure.

Steph I'm glad to read that you're still putting food out for them to eat IF they want to. I got home a little after noon today & there was my Janie sitting basking in the sun. They still aren't all down yet.

Congrats on those new babies you found!
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PHRatz

Talk about wild box turtle food!! We also have two cats. Each of which will bring home all kinds of animals that they will catch around town. Once they kill whatever it is they catch they leave it on the back patio after they have gotten bored with it. Well this is where the box turtles take over. I have seen them eat snakes, mice, lizards, and even bird parts. You can imagine they would do the same in the wild.

That's cool. Way to make use of natural food sources. As the old saying goes,"If you get lemons make lemonaid" Next year I am definately going to incorperate pinkies into their diet, good sourse of calcium and protein and vits, I might even through in a little raw venison steak now and then, a little venison ribeye on a Saturday night and a couple thimbles of wine, that otta get them in the mood for making babies, it's been know to work for me nothing but the best cuts for my boxies

>>Talk about wild box turtle food!! We also have two cats. Each of which will bring home all kinds of animals that they will catch around town. Once they kill whatever it is they catch they leave it on the back patio after they have gotten bored with it. Well this is where the box turtles take over. I have seen them eat snakes, mice, lizards, and even bird parts. You can imagine they would do the same in the wild.

Now that's interesting. This summer DH accidentally ran over a TX blind snake which is a snake that's about the size of a nightcrawler. I wondered then if any of those little snakes have come out in the pen & if so did any turtles eat the snake. I'll bet they would if they found one.
This year is the first year I've found baby geckos around our house, they've been living on & in the bricks I used to build turtle houses. I'd bet if the geckos don't get away fast enough they're turtle food too.
Yeah I've found them eating dead birds before, yech.
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PHRatz

We have small geckos and what I can smooth brown snakes that get about 6-8" long that live all around our house and in the same flower beds my turtles inhabit. Well I will walk up on a box turtle eating one of these about once a month. How they catch them is a bit of a mystery to me but I can only wonder how many they catch that I never know about. I have always wanted to purchase on of those very very small cameras and attach it to the top of a turtles shell for a week just to get an idea of what they do in a given day and the things they eat while I am at work. I think it would be very educational

Oh I like that idea, a turtle cam!
It would be interesting because I've wondered too if they eat any of the spiders out there.
I've walked out to feed before & found Janie with a grasshopper in her mouth, when Cookie the foster turtle was outside I found her in a patch of grass eating little bugs that were in the grass.
It would be educational to be able to see things from a turtle's point of view.
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PHRatz