Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I took all of the steps in the last post and still no eating.
I have moved him to a small rubbermaid container and have taken away the heat bulb but left the Reptisun 5.0. His temps are about 80 degress during the day and humidity is much higher at 60-70%. At night I use the lid over the majority of his habitat and it says about 70-80% humidity and 74 degrees. I have been soaking him daily in a mixture of Pedialyte and Ensure. When I pull him out to soak him he is wide eyed and pissed off so the increased humidity is doing good things. I have tried the following: Reptomin, greens, veggies, fruit, worms, waxworms, dog food,cat food and hard boiled eggs. As soon as I place him back in his habitat he runs for cover and buries himself until the next time I pull him out. He is still at 50 grams today. Is the pedialyte and ensure enough for nutrition?

Any other thoughts? I even tried a different trick that came from a fellow turtle person and it did not work. I am wondering at this point if I should have my exotic vet tube feed him. I am in awe that he is looking so good after not eating in so long.

Linda

If the turtle is drinking the Pedialyte and Ensure-then yes, that is enough to keep him alive for awhile. It is not good as a permanent diet of course- and it is no different than tube feeding him as long as he is drinking it. I would not recommend tube feeding unless the turtle becomes weak or lethargic and loses a more weight. Now it's only 2 grams, right?

Try adding a UVA light-that is a plant grow light. I was caring for an injured wild turtle hatchling over the winter months a few years ago. He was not eating, but a few days after adding the UVA light he began to eat waxworms and small superworms. I really think the UVA helped increased his appetite and made him "happy". He was more active after the addition of the plant grow light.

Have you tried feeding him in a separate tub yet? I would fill a small plastic box with a centimeter of water and tilt it up at one end with a book so most of the water goes to the lower end. Add a few bugs or worms-it's OK if they go into the water-cover the box with the top and leave him alone in a quiet room for about an hour. See if he eats.

Good luck-don't give up
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Tess Cook
www.boxturtlesite.info

What do you recommend for a plant grow light? Yes, I did try putting him in a small container with the live food, but he sat there like a lump on a log. I forgot to mention I am also trying blood worms. He was about 52 grams when I got him and he is still registering at 50 grams. Is this a significant weight loss?

Thanks, Linda

Linda,

a 2 gram loss is not too much, that is only about a ...4% weigh loss. But of course a baby should always be increasing, so it is a concern but nothing to be alarmed about. I think if it is drinking a little of the enriched solution everday (still provide fresh water) and you are giving him the right conditions to want to eat-then it will begin to eat as soon as it is hungry. A month is not unusual for a turtle to go without a hearty appetite if he is stressed about a recent habitat change.

Any kind of plant grow light is OK-those used by African Violet growers are fine. The ones for fish tanks with live tanks are OK too.
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Tess Cook
www.boxturtlesite.info

Your turtle just wants to hibernate. Years ago I had the same problem. I finally had to give up and just let him hibernate naturally outside. When spring came he was in great shape and would eat anything that moved. Some times you just can’t fight Mother Nature. If you want to hibernate him just let me know and I will give you some tips.

Jack
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Jack

Linda, OK straight up here are three photos of 3 baby boxies born Aug 29th. Three photos 1 shows the three babys drinking water and the next shows them by some food, wax worms, maggots, red worms and mashed up strawberrys, THEY DID NOT EAT ANYTHING.
They all took a big drink of water and went back to sleep. In the lasat photo you will see a forth turtles he is 1 year and
4 months and he has not eaten for 2 months but he took a big drink. Also I'll try and post their indoor pin.
I expect these turtles will sleep and wake up several times a month before spring, drinking water but no food and I EXPECT them to live, if they don't I'll be suprised because the others from last year did.

appears the photos loaded in reverse

Alan

Dang! These things look big! Way to go!

OK here's my last photo of the baby boxie pen. Got it right spelling of pin should pen at any rate this a view of the pen I keep the three babies from August of this year and the other baby who is 1 year and 4 months old. They will drink water but will not eat through the winter months. Their pen is in our family room and the average temp is about 68 degrees all winter.
For bedding I have a layer of earth dirt and spagnum moss which I keep lightly moist. The pen is about 18 inches by 24 by 4 inches deep I can close the lid with a screen top and put a 40 watt bulb for a hint of heat should the winter get very cold.
My 4 adults 2 males and 2 females live right next to them only bigger pens and have been doing this for about 10 years now, no
one has died yet.
Alan

I do not frequent this forum much so I may be repeating some comments other posters have already mentioned in the past. However i can say i have been breeding ornate and three toed for about 20 years. The first thing that jumps out at me is the weight of your particular boxy. A 50 gram box hatchling sounds rather healthy. Mine hatch out about 15-2o grams so 50 grams would have almost tripled in size so he is eating something. If he has food at all times I would have to guess he is eating while you are not looking. If you were not providing food at all times I would advise that you do. That way when he comes out when you are not around he might be more inclined to eat, as he feels more secure. You can imagine how small the stomach is on a hatchling box so a few very small mouthfuls from a small spoonful of food may go unnoticed. In fact i often think they get more on their face than they do in their mouth. I also feed mine small red worms that i dig out of the compost pile and I see the hatchling eat half of a worm while the other half crawls away and escapes. This scenario could also go unnoticed if I was just counting complete worms eating and overlooking several that are half eaten. I guess my point is I would be willing to bet he is eating something. If you are monitoring weight have you noticed that he has lost weight? Also not many on mine will eat with me hovering over them as you are nothing more than a predator to them at that point and they are certainly not going to eat if they feel they are your lunch. However in a few years this all changes and they end up chasing you around the back yard begging for a treat
I also would not tube feed this guy until he has lost a good amount of weight and you are sure there is no other alternative. This sounds very traumatic for the turtle and will probably set it back farther.
My two cents
Allen Sheehan

Thanks to all who have posted. You all said a lot of things that really makes sense.

He is still hanging in there. I have been soaking him every other day in water(with calcium &D3)and on the off days in a mixture of Ensure and water. I have not seen him eat anything and have watched very closely although I guess he could be eating very little of something. He keeps fluctuating between 50 and 51 grams. Yesterday he was 51 after his soak. I have improved his conditions per my other post keeping humidity from 60-85% and his daytime temps at about 80, with night drops to about 74. I do not use a heat light as he really didn't seem to like it much and it dries everything out too quickly, I do have a Reptisun 5.0 over his enclosure on one end and the lid to his rubbermaid container over the remainder. My reptile room is heated to 85 degrees. I also have my adopted adult box turtle in there(she is doing fantastic) along with my Uromastyx and Bearded Dragon.

I did notice after his soaks yesterday and today he had been in his water dish which is new. I have Reptomin in there. It did not look like he had eaten any though. I am not going to tube feed him. I just need to sit tight at this point. He is still active and does not appear sick at all. I just hope there isn't something that I am missing but I have tried everything.

It is actually good to hear that your boxy is keeping his weight on. If it was me my goal would be to keep his weight on until spring when you could move the little guy to an outside pen/area. Once a turtle is sitting under natural sun light and surrounded by outdoor bugs things really work out best. For my hatchlings I section off a 3' x 4' portion of my garden with 2"x8" lumber. They get to feast on snails, slugs, worms, grubs, rolly pollies and Lord knows what else they stumble accross, All while basking in natural sunlight. To be honest I feed my hatchlings only once a week or so as there is lots of food for them to eat already. I do have to mention here that I do not use pesticides of any kind in my yard. Once they are bout 3-4" I let them join the adults and free roam the yard at will. Let me know if I can help in any way.

Allen Sheehan

Have you tried good quality, dry, dog kibble, Linda? Mine seems to love it and my softshell turtle will only eagerly eat food that looks brown to him, so I give him goldfish pellets instead. I put into the dish both the goldfish pellets and Reptomin to see which does my small juvie prefers and he always goes for the goldfish pellets first.... After I feed some goldfish pellets to my softshell actually tried to eat quite a bit of the Reptomin sticks. Maybe they like brown color food better....I'm not really sure, though. I soak my dog kibble until it's soft by the way.

They really love either the goldfish pellets or the good quality, low-fat, dry, dog kibbles.

Thanks and yes I have tried dry soaked as well as canned

Linda, you are doing the right things and the turtle's set up sound good, so there is a good chance the turtle will surprise you one day and eat Just keep offering it delectable items.

When I got my first turtle, a three-toed, he would not eat ANYTHING either. He was wild caught and the family who had him before me was worried sick. I found something he would eat, ripe cantaloupe. For over a year I had to make him little cantaloupe sandwiches and hide fruits, veggies and protein between slices of cantaloupe. After a year he began to eat food if cantaloupe was mixed with it. After 3 years he finally became a good eater. Now he'll eat anything. Hang in there! Tess