Reptile & Amphibian Forums

We have a male box turtle that is 5” long, 4” wide. 3” high, and weighed 14-½ oz. three weeks ago. He has dropped 1 ounce, won’t eat, and has been making a weird noise after he consumes so much. It seems like he just sits and lets it go down and then start to eat again. In the last couple of weeks he won’t touch anything, but he has never been a big eater. I put him in the bathtub daily for about ½ hour in warm water.

I had him outside last week, for about one hour, when the temperature was 68 and I noticed bubbles coming out of his mouth and he had his mouth open a lot. When he was out he walked and walked and did not try to hide, just very inquisitive. He is lively, does not appear to be sick, should I be worried with the weight loss, noise in his throat while eating, and now not eating? He did maintain the 14-ounce weight over the winter. This is going on the first year in the house, I have no idea how old he is, and am wondering if I should take him to the vet, or give him a little more time as spring is approaching.

Thank you very much Norristhenut

Some of my easterns make a kind of a creaking/squeeking noise when they eat (even one of the hatchlings does this, too). I think that it is probably normal: the ones that do it in our herd are quite healthy.
I have also witnessed healthy turtles produce bubbles much as you described, even regurgitating after eating too fast. Is it possible that he ate a slug or snail while you had him out? Either can give the turtle the appearance of foaming at the mouth, I've noticed. Is he producing bubbles from his nostrils? That would not be good.
If he were mine, I'd keep a close eye on him, make sure he gets plenty of beta-carotine rich food (carrots, sweetpotato, etc.), maybe even add a drop or two of cod liver oil to his meals.
It doesn't sound as though he's shed an alarming amount of weight (yet) and the fact that he still has a healthy appetite is a good thing.
Something you might want to consider if you haven't already would be your tap water- do you have a well or are you on municipal supply? We have municipal water which is heavily chlorinated, so we 'condition' tap water before using it as turtle bath water: this is accomplished by filling containers(milk jugs work great) with tap water and allowing the containers to stand, open, for 24 hrs. This allows the chlorine to evaporate off.
Regards
Stephanie