Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Yesterday while driving down the road, I found a box turtle in it. I picked it up and brought it home and put it in mine and my boyfriend's pond. It's one of those ponds that you can buy and install. We had fish in it without any success but we have had frogs that came to it on their own. What my question is, what do I feed my new turtle? I want him to feel as comfortable as possible. Thanks!

wc boxies can be real finicky and stubborn but there is one thing that they can't resist.......a pre-killed mouse. boxies tend to roam about mainly in the earlier morning [they avidly avoid heat], so just drop a mouse in front of him some morning. she/he will appreciate it immediately. just give it some space. funny you mentioned......i get frogs outta nowhere in my pond too! i just spotted a fairly enormous bullfrog the other day that's gotta go!!!!! i have also noticed that the frogs [mainly bulls] usually always show up after rainy nights. best of luck w/ the boxie! keep us posted on how you make out......

You mean that a little box turtle eats mice? Well he's not exactly small but not big either. I never knew that but then again I'm not sure if I could bring myself to kill a mouse. Huge animal lover here. *lol* The frog thing is funny. We started off with just one fairly sized frog in our pond and then a few weeks later we saw two little frogs there as well and we thought maybe the frog had babies. Then a few weeks later, we have this huge frog, maybe a bullfrog, just appear out of norwhere in the pond. Now he's the only frog in there so I'm assuming he ate the little one and chased the bigger one off. It's kinda sad but that's mother nature for you.
I went to the pet store for my turtle and bought aquatic turtle pellets that have like shrimp and that kind of stuff in it. I hope it's alright for him but the lady at the store said it's ok so I hope so.

>>Yesterday while driving down the road, I found a box turtle in it. I picked it up and brought it home and put it in mine and my boyfriend's pond. It's one of those ponds that you can buy and install. We had fish in it without any success but we have had frogs that came to it on their own. What my question is, what do I feed my new turtle? I want him to feel as comfortable as possible. Thanks!

Am I understanding your post correctly... you put a land dwelling box turtle into a fish/frog pond full of water? I'd be more worried about the turtle drowning right now than getting it to eat.
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PHWyvern

actually ph wayvern, boxies love a good soak and are quite fond of 'bobbing about' when it's hot out. i assumed the original poster meant a pond surrounded by terra firma as mine is. it is not unusual for me to see mine 'swimming' [if you could call it that] just before they dig in for the day, not to be seen again till the morning......btw, thanks for hearing me a couple months back. i appreciated that very much.........as did others!

>>actually ph wayvern, boxies love a good soak and are quite fond of 'bobbing about' when it's hot out. i assumed the original poster meant a pond surrounded by terra firma as mine is. it is not unusual for me to see mine 'swimming' [if you could call it that] just before they dig in for the day, not to be seen again till the morning......btw, thanks for hearing me a couple months back. i appreciated that very much.........as did others!

Well, yes I am aware of that, but working at a nature center like I do I usually find it best to try and get some clarification on incomplete information before assuming anything - you just never know.

It's not uncommon for people to come in here wanting to know why their box turtle is so unhappy when they went to sooo much trouble to set it up in an aquarium (or gawds..once a picnic cooler) full of water! or...why is my painted turtle covered in sores/bleeding ulcers and his eyes all infected? (maybe like duh a diet of 100% hot dogs and shrimp *might* be the reason?). Then again, these are the same kind of people that think a Redear slider can live in a 10 gallon tank with only 2 inches of water or that endangered green sea turtles can be wonderfully happy living in a freshwater lake (yes that has happened to us once) or a fledgling redshoulder hawk would make a great pet to take home..it only needs to be fed earthworms and bread right? Don't get me into the diatribe about the whole harry potter fiasco when that first movie came out and the kinds of 'nature questions' about owls we were getting from ditzy newspaper reporters sigh.
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PHWyvern

I am not one of those kind of people...I am a huge animal lover and never would do anything to intentionally hurt an animal. I was just misinformed this time and know never to do it again. The turtle survived, got out, and the rest is in Mother Nature's hands.

Well I have learned my lesson now and I am glad that the turtle escaped.