Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Welcome to kingsnake.com's message board system. Here you may share and discuss information with others about your favorite reptile and amphibian related topics such as care and feeding, caging requirements, permits and licenses, and more. Launched in 1997, the kingsnake.com message board system is one of the oldest and largest systems on the internet.

Click for 65% off Shipping with Reptiles 2 You
Click for ZooMed

Yurtle is doing well...

buffysmom Nov 17, 2005 07:05 PM

I was worried a while ago because she wasn't eating as much or as regularly as Squirtle. I tried feeding them in seperate containers, but they spent all their time trying to get out of the containers. Now I'm back to feeding them in their home.

Yurtle is showing a strong preference for white insects (fresh shed mealies, wax worms) & seems to have difficulty w/ the red wigglers. No such problem for Squirtle. I'm going to get some small silk worms to help vary the "white worm" diet. Any other suggestions?

Also, neither will eat anything that's not moving. This is normal for hatchlings, right?
-----
Robins Critters
1.0 Corn snakes Jack Skellington
1.1 Hog Island Boas Harley & Isaboa
0.1 Albino Sonoran Gopher Snake Jasmine
1.3 Leopard Geckos Yoda, Geo, Tang, Ginger
0.1.1 Crested Geckos Peek & Boo
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink Indigo
0.0.2 Eastern Box Turtles Squirtle & Yurtle
0.1 Pacman Frog Buffy the Cricket Slayer
0.0.1 Sulawesi Red Toad Mr. Toad
0.2 Tiger Salamanders Tiger & Sally
1.1.3 Firebelly Newts Wayne Newton, Isaac Newton, Fig Newton, Olivia Newton John & Thandie Newton
1.1 Cats Gus & Mena

Replies (6)

PHRatz Nov 18, 2005 10:52 AM

>>Yurtle is showing a strong preference for white insects (fresh shed mealies, wax worms) & seems to have difficulty w/ the red wigglers. No such problem for Squirtle. I'm going to get some small silk worms to help vary the "white worm" diet. Any other suggestions?
So she's eating! That's good news.
Mine love white grub worms, but I have to go outside & dig those up, I wouldn't know if you have any in your area that you can use a garden shovel to dig up yourself. It's not fun either but I've done it lately to offer them to Chip, so far he refuses then the other turtles get what I've dug up.

Another "white" insect can be crickets from the pet store because when you dust them in vitamin/calcium powder they look white. I adopted an African fat tailed gecko about a year ago who also seems to prefer white insects. He always goes after the crickets that have been dusted faster than he will go for those that aren't dusted.

>>
>>Also, neither will eat anything that's not moving. This is normal for hatchlings, right?

Yes it is normal.
-----
PHRatz

buffysmom Nov 18, 2005 11:25 AM

I haven't used crix yet because they don't seem really quick. Especially Yurtle, she'll bite at the worm a good 3-4 times before she gets it. I can't see a cricket staying around for that!
-----
Robins Critters
1.0 Corn snakes Jack Skellington
1.1 Hog Island Boas Harley & Isaboa
0.1 Albino Sonoran Gopher Snake Jasmine
1.3 Leopard Geckos Yoda, Geo, Tang, Ginger
0.1.1 Crested Geckos Peek & Boo
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink Indigo
0.0.2 Eastern Box Turtles Squirtle & Yurtle
0.1 Pacman Frog Buffy the Cricket Slayer
0.0.1 Sulawesi Red Toad Mr. Toad
0.2 Tiger Salamanders Tiger & Sally
1.1.3 Firebelly Newts Wayne Newton, Isaac Newton, Fig Newton, Olivia Newton John & Thandie Newton
1.1 Cats Gus & Mena

PHRatz Nov 18, 2005 12:19 PM

>>I haven't used crix yet because they don't seem really quick.

I'll tell you something yucky.. I breed lobster roaches for reptile food & they are even faster than crickets. I have 2 box turtles that love them, 1 mud turtle who loves them, 2 box turtles who are so-so about them & a painted turtle who is scared to death of them lol.
They are easy to powder like the crickets are so I hurt the roaches before I feed them to the turtles because if I don't the roaches will run away.
I put the powder in a glass jelly jar, dump the roaches in there & then I catch them out of the jar with hemostats.. by the head that way I can crunch their heads so they're still alive but they can't run away. The turtles get their meals when the roaches can't run away.
People have told me for years that if you take the big legs off the crickets they're easier to catch but I can't sit down & pull legs off crickets by hand. It's easier to me to crunch roach heads & after all they are roaches which are pretty icky bugs in the first place.
When I feed crickets to the turtles, I do that in the bathtub. I use our extra bathroom as the animal bathroom so I'm not worried about germs passing to humans.
The turtles bathe in there every day anyway so they are used to being in the bathtub. The crickets cannot climb out of the tub like the roaches can so the turtles just pick off the crickets one at a time with no problems.
One thing is though, it does take time to get each box turtle used to the bathtub. They don't always eat in there in the beginning but eventually as they get used to being in there, they have no problem eating in there too.
-----
PHRatz

melgrj7 Nov 18, 2005 03:25 PM

You can also put crickets in the freezer for about 5 minutes, it won't kill them but they will stop moving, usually long enough for slower animals to catch They warm up slowly and will start moving their legs a bit and that would probably attract the attention of the baby boxies.

buffysmom Nov 19, 2005 10:04 PM

Thanks for the cricket-freezing tip. I might try that. I can't handle roaches. I I tried feeding them to some of my other animals, but they just creeped me out too much! Yuck!
-----
Robins Critters
1.0 Corn snakes Jack Skellington
1.1 Hog Island Boas Harley & Isaboa
0.1 Albino Sonoran Gopher Snake Jasmine
1.3 Leopard Geckos Yoda, Geo, Tang, Ginger
0.1.1 Crested Geckos Peek & Boo
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink Indigo
0.0.2 Eastern Box Turtles Squirtle & Yurtle
0.1 Pacman Frog Buffy the Cricket Slayer
0.0.1 Sulawesi Red Toad Mr. Toad
0.2 Tiger Salamanders Tiger & Sally
1.1.3 Firebelly Newts Wayne Newton, Isaac Newton, Fig Newton, Olivia Newton John & Thandie Newton
1.1 Cats Gus & Mena

PHRatz Nov 20, 2005 12:36 PM

>>Thanks for the cricket-freezing tip. I might try that. I can't handle roaches. I I tried feeding them to some of my other animals, but they just creeped me out too much! Yuck!

ROFL!! Yuck is what everyone says but I really like having an endless supply of feeders that I know are well fed.
-----
PHRatz

Site Tools