Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello and greetins from Costa Rica!!!

Since I was about seven years (Now twenty three), I have grown and taken care of several turtles, most of them aquatic, a girlfriend once got a box turtle (Named "Pachinga", and her dog attacked it once, therefore she handle it to me, and therefore I got my first baby box turtle, it has a little piece of her shell rippen of near the left bottom leg, but it wasn't very damaged and now she is recuperating her shell.

However, up to where I know, this turtle appeared in my girlfriend's yard, and wasn't breeded in captivity as none of the neighbors knew about this turtle, I installed a terrarium for this little pal, here in Costa Rica the sun conditions and humidity are more than enough for taking care of reptiles, but "Pachinga" doesn't want to eat *anything*, and is very aggresive, I don't know where does she get the enery to try to attack me
every time I take it out from the terarrium, nor when I left in the floor and runs to the first dark and mist place that is around.

I think that the ambient is very stressful to her, but I'm very worried about her nutrition, I have tried with apples, lettuce, ham, turkey, turtle food, and now I'm waiting for a can of snails from ZooMed that I ordered last week from US.

The only times that I saw she eating were when she wanted to bite me but instead of my finger she got a piece of carrot or lettuce, wich she ingested...

Does anybody have any recomendations or advice? Here are some pictures of her (I recall calling this turtle "her", but maybe is a "him"!!!)

Another thing, I don't know wich species this turtle is, does anybody has one like Pachinga, or maybe is a local species from Costa Rica??

Thanks!!

Rodolfo Quesada
rquesada@eml.cc
Pictures of Pachinga!

I think I can solve your problem
It looks like that is no box turtle, but a MUD turtle (mud turtles have hinged shells too)
Water turtles cannot swallow their food unless they are in water. Try setting him up in a tank with about 5 inches of water, and then feed him. Stick with MEAT.
Try live food, worms, crickets, snails, etc...
Keep us updated!

First, I want to apologize for the double post, I clicked on "Post Message" but then stopped it to add a few notes, but it was already posted...

Thanks for the information!!!

In fact, she (or he?) seems to be a mud turtle!!! In about an hour I moved her from the terrarium and put into a quick-made pond like ambient in an 11"x15"x8" tank with an inch of water (Because she floats!!) and several soft rivers rocks around ...

This species are native to a range between Mexico and Central America, and there isn't much information about them as pets, except for biology specific issues, and mainly that they are found in the wild.

I hope that she feels comfortable in this new ambient, now I don't know what to do with the Repti Bark I ordered... Hmmm, maybe I will get a box turtle!!! Anyhow, I'm thinking on a outside pond or a bigger tank with many ambients...

But maybe it is better to found a river and let her free, but around here those rivers are very contaminated and I don't think that to be a very good idea.

I'm planning in getting sand or other soft rock substrate, as for I researched, they live in ponds that "have soft-bodied beds, either consisting of sand or mud, and support a large amount of aquatic vegetation".

But I have no idea on how to keep that ambient clean, as if it is mud, then it will be always dirty, very paradoxical, isn't it??

Maybe in a future I will build and outside pond (I already have a hole in my yard, but I'm waiting for winter to be able to plant several trees and vegetation around to keep the humidity in summmer)

In Costa Rica, winter is the rainy season, where everything is green and there are fruits everywhere (And some serious floods in the Atlantic coast), there is only winter and summer seasons, right now we are in summer, but it ends in may and lasts until november, right now everything is dry, all plants are dead, and looks like a desert... Yesterday we got the first rain in the year, a lot of plants popped out of their roots, very funny... Some frogs got out their caves and a lot of birds appeared...

I just feed her... And she ate her food!!! That's great!!! But only ate a little...

Thanks a lot!!! I will keep posting notes about this little pal for a while.

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Rodolfo Quesada
rquesada@eml.cc
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Rodolfo Quesada
rquesada@eml.cc

That is wonderful, I am glad that it ate!
This page tells you all about how to care for your mud.
http://www.unc.edu/~dtkirkpa/stuff/mud2.html
I have 4 mud turtles of my own, I have them inside my house in an aquarium. I have about 6 inches of water inside, and I have piled rocks up out of the water so that they can climb out and bask. As for a filter, I find that the best is the duetto dj 100.
Also they have a heat lamp to keep them warm, and a uvb bulb to provide vitamin d3.
If you can build a pond for it, that would be even better though! Good luck.
p.s. here is a pic of the duetto filter.

Your turtle appears to be Kinosternon cruentatum (Red-Cheeked Mud) - I know you already found out it is a Mud, just wanted to let you know what species exactly...

Buena suerte,
Job.