Reptile & Amphibian Forums

First for the pics! These are thumbnails, click them for a larger (much larger) version:

This is a pic of him gnawing on my chest of drawers. He still does it every now and then, although not as much:

Another gnawing pic:

This next is my favorite. I had no idea that turtles could yawn until I saw it for myself. Luckly I had the camera nearby:

Here is one of Hat thinking my hand is a worm:

The next two are just of Hat exploring:

and

Ok, now for my questions. Hat is eating a lot--a hell of a lot. As soon as I got my crickets in the mail I started feeding them to him, and he gobbles them up. I left the house and his bowl was full of five crickets and about 8 shrimp larvae. When I came back (I was gone about 8 hours) all of them were gone.

I have stopped feeding him corn and peas, but when I fed them he would eat every single one in the bowl, as soon as I filled it. Now I give him iceburg lettuce with carrots and half of a strawberry. I alternate; monday it is bugs, tuesday it is veggies, wednesday it is bugs, and so forth.

He loves the carrots and gobbles them up. Same with the strawberry; it is the first to go. The lettuce is never eaten for some reason. When I let him out for exercise, I hand-feed him crickets. He will eat them until I stop feeding him. At the moment, while I am typing this, he is standing at my feet with his neck extended, staring right at me, waiting for more crickets (I just gave him 5, he doesnt get any more today).

Anyhow, the question is, how much is too much? When I first got him I was so concerned that he wasn't eating. But now I am worried that he is eating too much! I don't want him to get fat. I think I am giving him a balanced diet, but too much can still be bad. So what should I do? Feed him every day like I am doing or every other day? When he doesnt have food he still scratches his bowl and gnaws my furnature as if he is starving. But he can't be starving, the little piggy!

Also, from the pics, does anyone know what kind of turtle he is? I still havent found out.

Looks like he may be an ornate box turtle to me. As far as him always being hungry, he may not have gotten food regularly before and needs to get his weight back up. I know when host ratz has gotten underweight boxies they always eat a lot to begin with and then taper off. I usually feed Mikey (my ornate)every other day or couple of days, alternating between bugs and veggies. Normally ornates tend to eat more bugs than veggies. Lettuce isn't very nutrious, so I would cut that out. Replace it with collared greens or dandelion greens or something darker. If all you can find is lettuce, at least get romaine, which still isn't great but is better than iceberg. You can also include more veggies. I switch it up all the time. Mikey loves squash. I put it in the microwave for 1 minute to soften it alittle. He also loves all kinds of berries, and goes nuts over cantelope. He likes green beans too. You can also try mushrooms, Mikey likes portabella mushrooms but not [bleep]ake (those are the only 2 types i've tried).

Where do you get [bleep]ake mushrooms!

-----
0.1.0 ornate box turtle
1.0.0 eastern box turtle
0.1.0 Australian shepard
2.2.0 chickens
3.2.0 children (do I still count the married ones?)
1.0.0 husband

>>Where do you get [bleep]ake mushrooms!

ROFL!!
OH do I have a story about those!!!!!!
But I can't tell it here.
heee heeeeeeeeeee
-----
PHRatz

ROFL, in the grocery store right next to the toliet paper of course!

(really, in the mushrooms section of produce hehe)

>>Looks like he may be an ornate box turtle to me. As far as him always being hungry, he may not have gotten food regularly before and needs to get his weight back up. I know when host ratz has gotten underweight boxies they always eat a lot to begin with and then taper off.

Yeppers
(pssssssst Mel it's PHRatz now, not HP Ratz lol)

Each one that I've taken in that seemed to be starving would eat like there's no tomorrow for about 3 months. I feed the hungry ones like them every day until they get to a point where they taper off on the food all on their own. Once they begin to eat like a normal adult box, I stop offering food on a daily basis & they seem content with less food as long as the food is good nutritional foods that they need.
Like Melissa said iceberg lettuce isn't a good thing for any of them, no nutritional value, bugs & dark leafy greens would be better.
-----
PHRatz

I'll just call you ratz, its easier lol