Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'd planned to allow Charity to stay outside through the winter but after reading suggestions, info, etc. etc. her vet said if she's walking in slow motion in the pouring cold rain when the wild male has already gone underground then bring her in. So I did.
I've only had her since June of 2004, for all I know Charity spent her previous life indoors all the time. I have no idea where she came from but she had pink nail polish on her when I got her.
Yesterday she was out roaming around the turtle-proofed part of the house after her bath.
I have my digital scale sitting out all the time now so that I can weigh Chip every day.
I put Charity on the scale yesterday.. couldn't believe it!
She weighs a pound and a half! She so huge for an ornate box turtle, I'm just awestruck every time I look at her. lol
This is Charity next to Shell E

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PHRatz

>>I'd planned to allow Charity to stay outside through the winter but after reading suggestions, info, etc. etc. her vet said if she's walking in slow motion in the pouring cold rain when the wild male has already gone underground then bring her in. So I did.

She was probably enjoying the rain lol. During the winters here, wth Medford, it wasn't unusal to find him occasionally sitting on top of the hay pile over the hibernation pit while it was covered in snow!
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PHWyvern

I don't know because she didn't look like she was enjoying herself as cold as it was. She was heading toward shelter I think?
I dunno but I didn't want to take any chances.. if it can go wrong for me it will.
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PHRatz

I had to bring my two female ornates inside last night as it was going to dip down into the 20s overnight and they weren't buried at all, while their male buddies have been under for a couple of weeks, in spite of the occasional 80 degree weather.

Yes, as recently as Sunday, it was a balmy 80 degrees outside.

Hopefully we'll have a few warmer days in the next couple of weeks and I can put them back out. I had to do that last year and they finally went under.

Same here Lisa. Hobo the male has been under for a couple of weeks.. nearly 3 weeks now. Even though we had a few days when it was in the high 80s, I kept checking where he buried himself & he never opened up. I put a big pile of leaves on top of his "doorway" then we put one of the little turtle houses on top of his burrow so that it'll cut off the north wind. We had our first hard freeze 2 nights ago.
I had a long discussion with the vet about what to do with this girl, to hibernate or not to hibernate.
I realize that not all vets know it all but she's good, she attends 3-4 exotic conferences every year... so I'll do what she says because I am still not 100% convinced that those turtles who don't breed absolutely must hibernate.
Nobody really has a complete understanding of hibernation, other than we know they do it in the wild because they must.
I brought up the study that implied health problems caused by not doing it.. she interrupted me & said you mean that study where the guy doing it had only 3 turtles? She blew that off because he only had 3 in the study & she doesn't think that carries enough weight to risk Charity's life.
And Charity doesn't at all seem to mind being in a soft cushy enclosure in the house.
So here she is in the house, being a brat. LOL
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PHRatz