Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok,
The other day I finally got all the stuff I needed to switch up my baby Eastern Box Turtle's enclosure. I didn't get a 10 Gallon but the 17 qt. rubbermaid container I have him in is big enough. There is a little cave on one side(he spends most of his time there except in the morning) and the rest of the tank is covered in moss(except right infront of the cave, that's where he eats). I know the feeding hasn't changed much but I still feed him a little bit of chicken everyday with some kind of vitamin supplement on it(helps shell growth). Anyone wanna tell me what I'm doing wrong here?
Michael

When I first got my box turtle, she would only eat bananas for the first couple of weeks. Then she slowly started trying different things.

I've only had her for about 4 months, and she continues to eat more and more thing.

Maybe with all the moving around etc. you turtle is going to need time to settle in.

Keep feeding it, its favorites, and add small bits of other food. Maybe it just need more time.

Is like children eating only Snickers bars.... according to my vet. Often if feeding bananas, that may be all they take. Anyone else have thoughts on this? I know they take them easily - I had mine on bananas for a while, too. Apparently, this is one of the worst foods for turtles and I was told to eliminate them completely. I'm wondering what others have heard.
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Jenny

1.0 Ball Python "Zeke"
0.1 Box Turtle "Ferdie"

I hadn't heard that it was one of the worst foods, but turtles can easily become fixated on a single food, which can lead to problems.
You're right in comparing it to feeding a child exclusively on candy...
Stephanie

Glad to hear that you put it in its own habitat.
On the diet issue: presuming that you are cutting the chicken up into small pieces, have you tried cutting those pieces even smaller, and adding, say, finely chopped bits of carrot to the chicken bits? Or greens, or fruit?
By chopping the chicken and adding chopped piecs of other vegetables, greens and/or fruit, you will be increasing the chances of the little guy eating other good foods, if only by accident. In other words, each mouthful should have a bit of variety to it, not just one single food item.
As for the rest: as long as you have a good temp. range (cool end 75, warm end 85, or so), relatively high humidity, a shallow water 'pond' that it can get in and out of easily on its own, good light source, including uvb, you should be ok.
Turtles need a variety of places to hide, bask, soak etc., so that they can regulate their body temperature, and yes, the babies do spend alot of their day hiding.
I make sure mine go in for a soak every day, too, which isn't a bad idea for you: just make sure that you rinse the 'pool' every day, and be sure to use 'conditioned' tap water (unless your on a well). Condition the water by filling a clean container with water and letting it stand, open for 24hrs, to allow any chlorine to evaporate off.
Good luck
Stephanie

You need to introduce other foods to its diet: box turtles are omnivores, which means they can and do eat alots of differnt things in the wild, and get a wide range of nutrients from a huge variety of different foods.
I'm including a link to a site with great info on the dietary needs of box turtles, which also has tips on getting finicky eaters to try different foods, as well as lists of foods that are good for them and ones to avoid (and why). I urge you to read it and make the extra effort to get you turtle too eat a wider selection of foods.
Stephanie
Link

I recently got my baby Box to eat turtle sticks with a vitamin supplement on top. I am going to try banannas. I may be able to get pics of it and of its shell to show the only spot it has.
Michael