Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I essentially got berated on a different herp site about the condtion of that three-toed I have. I think I should give "her" up.

Any ideas? I've heard of Tortoise Trust.
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Least favorite quotation: "These foul and loathesome animals are abhorrant because of their cold body, pale color, cartilaginous skeleton, filthy skin, fierce aspect, calculating eye, offensive smell, harsh voice, squalid habitation, and terrible venom; and so their Creator has not exerted his powers to make many of them." - Carolus Linnaeus

0.0.1 Three-toed Box Turtle
0.0.1 Green Frog tadpole

Sorry to hear that you were treated poorly.

It's not too late to give your boxie a great life. They live longer than we do, in some cases. But if it's too demanding, a great rescue that I've worked with is MATTS. Mid-Atlantic Turtle and Tortoise Society, matts-turtles.org. I would start there. Good luck!

If you follow the advice offered by knowledgeable long-time box turtle keepers, there is no reason why you cannot begin to keep your turtle in better conditions. If you can make the changes that are necessary to keep him healhty then you are learning the same things we all had to learn. No one was born an expert keeper

Please buy my book (Box Turtles by Tess Cook), or read my online box turtle care book for free (www.boxturtlesite.org/bxbook.html)and it will help you to learn what you are doing right and how you can correct things you may be doing wrong.

If you decide to give the turtle up-don't feel bad for long-you are actually being a responsible pet owner and I think you are being very kind. You can always get another turtle in the future when you have more resources.

I like MATTS as well. But depending on where you live, there might be something closer.
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Tess Cook
www.boxturtlesite.info

I just went back and looked at the older post with pics of your box turtle and honestly it doesn't look that bad. It doesn't have pyrimiding or horrible looking scutes. The color seems odd greenish, to me it looks like there may have been algae growing on the shell or algae in the water that then baked on the top of the back. Not sure where your advisors termed "bleached" comes from unless the idea is that your turtle is basking too close to your UV light, because if I read it correctly you are using a florescent tube light so maybe it is too close and the turtle is basking very close, attempting to get warmth. Maybe a heat source, cleaner kept water source and a better more varied diet is all you need to get this turtle in perfect shape. And ignore the "bashing", your doing the best you can and we are ALL learning here. There is a product called vita shell that you could scrub onto the back of your turtle with toothbrush, which may help if the shell seems dry and peeling, but to be honest looking at your turtle I personally would take some rich black soil (and I mean pitch black greasy dirt) like the kind you would find in good farming or garden soil, not potting soil with fertilizer though, anyway take the black dirt and rubb it all over the shell, let in stay on for a few days and the rinse and I bet that shell will look amazingly better, just be sure to keep water source cleaned out if the turtle drags dirt into it water dish or whatever you use. Rich greasy black dirt is mother natures finest turtle shell conditioner.
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Jeff Benfer
gartersnakemorph.com

Great advice, Jeff.

I agree with Jeff and Tess. I can't tell much for sure from your picture. But it looks like the eyes are clear and it's alert. I would follow Jeff's advice, and like we all have mentioned, get off the dog kibble and start feeding a rich, well-balanced diet.

Thanks, all. You were kinder than those on that other forum.

I was giving it frozen (then thawed) collards. But the local grocery store stopped selling them. Any ideas what other frozen produce I could get and thaw and give the the critter?

Harding says to skip vita-shell - seems it does nothing for the turtle health, and just make it look "nicer".

I will probably keep it.
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Least favorite quotation: "These foul and loathesome animals are abhorrant because of their cold body, pale color, cartilaginous skeleton, filthy skin, fierce aspect, calculating eye, offensive smell, harsh voice, squalid habitation, and terrible venom; and so their Creator has not exerted his powers to make many of them." - Carolus Linnaeus

0.0.1 Three-toed Box Turtle
0.0.1 Green Frog tadpole