Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Quick summary. These guys hatched out a week before Thanksgiving. I have been headstarting them this winter (7-8 miles inland in Southern California). I started with 8 and adopted 5 of them out. Reports coming from the owners indicate that the others are doing fine. My question is about rate of growth. Can you more experienced folks let me know if these guys look like they're about where they should be?

Day 1
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v11/danmartin56/Miscellaneous/1119002.jpg

Day 33
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v11/danmartin56/Miscellaneous/Quarter33days.jpg

Day 110-ish
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v11/danmartin56/Miscellaneous/Quarter110days.jpg

Bonus picture
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v11/danmartin56/Miscellaneous/turtles004.jpg

Whoops. For got how to post photos.

Day 1

Day 33

Day 110-ish

Bonus picture

They look great! What are you feeding them? Keep them moist-people are finding out dry or low humidity is one cause of shell deformity, as well as poor nutrition. But you can give them a great diet but dry humidity will deform the shell. Yours looks great Tess

As far as turtle chow type foods, they've turned up their little beaked noses at everything but one kind of food that I get from a local reptile store. I'm not sure what it is--it comes in a plastic bag with no markings. It's in a large pellet form and I break it into small dried pea size chunks and let it soak in a small plastic lid. It swells up and gets soft and they really go for it. They get a variety of live food--pinhead to small crickets, sow bugs, wax worms, and occasionally earthworms. The sow bugs and crickets really get them excited. They also eat canteloupe and grapes. They haven't shown much interest in greens yet.

Every morning I put them in a tray of tepid water to soak while I moisten their substrate with a spray bottle. I rake through the substrate several times as I spray it to make sure it's more than just the top that is moist. There's also a pile of moss in one corner of their tank that gets sprayed real well, if not soaked in a pitcher. Once their tank is ready again, and their breakfast is in place, I put them back in. If there are sow bugs or crickets running around, they usually start chasing them right away, but if breakfast is the turtle chow, they generally "scurry" under the moss and come back out after a few minutes to eat the chow.