Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Obtained this one recently. Very nice Male Eastern Boxie, but what do you guys make of his colors? His skin is semi transparent, and very pale in the areas it is not transparent. The only dark area on him is the top of his head.

Opinions?

Yes, very pretty. Looks like a female to me. Do you have any belly/tail shots?

My shy yellow girl.

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Pretty. I agree, almost certainly a female.

Wow! She is a beauty! It's going to take some work to get her shell rot under control but definitely a keeper! Good luck!

If you're talking about the damage to the front edge of the carapace, that's not shell rot. It's the kind of damage that occurs when an animal like a raccoon tries to chew it's way into a box turtle to eat it. It looks like old damage and it won't ever look much different than that.

So do I understand correctly? - If an injury occurs (like a raccoon attack) it wouldn't/couldn't develop into shell rot? I'm confused on what dry shell rot looks like then. Can you explain further what the differences are? Or if you had some pictures that show differences between the two would be helpful! Thanks!

Very nice looking specimen!

Animal bites can lead to shell rot if the shell is not thoroughly cleaned. In the case of this turtle he has obviously been chewed on by an animal and it appears that he could have some shell rot (the dark areas) occuring around the shell where the animal bites are located. I can't tell from the picture if the bites are old and I would hate to assume anything when a turtle's health might be in question. I would look at the shell very carefully.
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Tess
Kingsnake.com Forum Host

It would be good to see a pic of the tail and belly to make a better sex assignment. I'm kinda getting from your wording of your questions that you were wondering if the turtle was hypo or genetically different. Breeding and then breeding any high yellow offspring will tell you if it's a gene that you can manipulate and breed true, but chances are it's just a random combination of many controlling genes creating a rather unique individual. But at the very least it's very pretty, especially if you want breed for high yellow, which seems to be very popular and can demand a higher price tag, personally I like the orange-reds.
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