Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was doing my evening check on my tortoise pens and hoping they were enjoying the soak from the afternoon rain we finally got after several very hot and dry weeks. Too my surprise, a baby Gulf Coast box turtle was in my big redfoot pen that previously housed an adult pair of Gulf Coast boxies last summer. It must be a yearling but is only about 1.5 inches long!!! I suspect more are out there in that pen, but it has a pretty thick layer of mulch and leaves and TONS of hiding spots. I am sure worms and other insect are in the mulch, along with tortoise leftovers. I am wondering where it obtained water unless it was crawling into the tortoise water dish which seems to big.

Congrats!

Baby turtles can drink rain water and dew, but they also have much more permeable skin than adults. They absorb a good bit of water from their environment.

Keep a close eye out! Redfoots can be voracious. I have a friend that described the carnage of a wayward black rat snake in his redfoot tortoise pen in early spring. After that, he said his females laid almost twice as many eggs as they ever had previously. They likey their protein.

Black rat snake, wow! I guess I'm not that surprised though, I have seen what my boxies will do with a large adult toad, it's pretty vicious, like watching Lions in Africa take down a water buffalo.
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Jeff Benfer
gartersnakemorph.com

I suspect the only reason I did find it was because its been so darn hot and dry for the past few weeks and we finally got a nice 45 minute rain event. The pen has been vacant since last summer until the redfoot went in their this past April. So, there is a chance the redfoot may not have gotten any of the other babies, if any. Of course, the birds and cats are another story LOL!! I thought about just leaving it in there, but thought twice about the redfoots love of protein and removed it LOL!! I felt kind of bad because the little guy obviously has been living in there for a while. I may just build a smaller pen with a screen top next to the redfoot pen, or partition a small area off of the existing pen for this little guy.

how about some pics?
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Jeff Benfer
gartersnakemorph.com

Jeff, would love too, but don't know how to post!! I will try to email you some pics. I have a digital camera and I USED to have an account on kingsnake.com to post pics and inbed into posts a few years back. I may be able to figure out how to do it again!! I am horrible with stuff like that. If you want to shoot me an email, I can try to send you some pics this weekend.