Reptile & Amphibian Forums

with the day off.
Made a new batch of boxie food balls. I used a large bag of mixed vegetables and I put half the bag in the blender at a time with 4 whole eggs shell and all in each batch, blended really well untill it was like a greenish yellow malt, mmmmm. then poured that into a five gallon bucket with 2 pounds of ground venison and 1 cup each of three different box turtle foods, reptomin, wardleys and zoo med. Then mixed well, see pic. I didn't add any mixed fruit this time since I will be throwing in strawberries and mulberries into the pen when they are fresh and available in my back yard. Then I make balls out of the food and put on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper and put in the freezer for a couple hours, then when they are rock hard I take them off the cookie sheet and put them in a gallon zip lock bag and put them back in the freezer. That way the balls won't be stuck togather, and twice a week I will just get out a ball the night before and thaw and then feed first thing in the morning. The box turtles go nuts over this food and chow down and it's very good balanced nutrition. Notice the tiny white flecks in the food, that is the tiny pieces of eggshell, which is a great source of calcium, and the rest of the egg helps the balls stick togather plus is good protein too. This is the best way to get box turtles to consistently eat there mixed vegetables, they don't even know they are eating them really. You will notice in the pic that I also made some baby sized balls for the baby boxie, lol, cute little balls for the cute little boxie.
Also I set up my yearling boxies new outdoor home (last pic). This is the same cage I raised up his parents in 10 years ago. I will keep him in this for the summer then next year he will go into a larger wooden pen with a hardward cloth top for a couple years and then will be big enough to go into the big pen with the adults. The cage is an old ferret cage from when my wife had a ferret, it has a nice door in the wire top to get in and out and allows the sunshine in and protects the babies, and the plastic sides are tall enough so the turtles feel secure and don't try to get out, the only thing I had to modify is to drill a bunch of holes in the bottom and sides for drainage during rainstorms. The cage is located on the patio with the deck overhead and faces northeast so gets sun all morning but then shade in the afternoon.



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Jeff Benfer
gartersnakemorph.com

Oh, wow! That looks good enough for me to eat! [laugh] I bet the turtles love them. How often do you feed babies and adults that?

Depends on the weather, roughly twice a week but prefer to feed the morning after a warm front or rain, which is when they are usually most active, so I watch the weather and read the turtles, after studying them over the years I can usually predict what days they will feed heavy and be out and what days it's a waste to even put food out. They don't eat a lot in April and May, mainly just nightcrawlers here and there to get their gut going, but right now is when they really start porking out and into July and August. When it starts to get hot around here and they really get active and feeding I might feed them every other day. When they look hungry I feed as it is a short season here in Iowa. They totally chowed down this morning as we had a warm night last night.
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Jeff Benfer
gartersnakemorph.com

Excellent! I do about the same thing, except I add the fruit, as I don't have any fresh growing. I also throw in some Mazuri.

Yep bet it works good for them.
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Jeff Benfer
gartersnakemorph.com

Can you suppliment another meat besides ven...how about chicken or turkey? I am totally going to try this

Scott
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Scott
"The most powerful person never has to use it"

Oh yeah, I think ground turkey would work just fine too. I have just found that they go nuts over the smell of venison, as I have feed them just plain ground venison too. Of course I have never tried ground turkey but I would guess it would be just as healthy and just as attractive. I just have a lot of extra venison on hand as I bowhunt whitetail deer since we have so many big fat tasty corn fed deer here in Iowa.
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Jeff Benfer
gartersnakemorph.com

Turkey is real easy on their digestive tract because it's so bland compare to things like chicken and beef. That's what they use to wean wild cat cubs from milk. They would mix ground turkey with milk and slowly wean them off the milk. A lot of animals seems to get the run and smelly poop when fed chicken for some reason...I think it's the salmonella.

Thanks for the receipe.

That is a lot of effort, but in the long run saves you hours of work weekly making the mixture from scratch each time you feed them. My only concern is the raw eggs-there was a recent outbreak of Salmonella in farmed eggs, so that bug is still going strong. Salmonell won't usually kill turtles, but could make them carriers and then you and others could get it. I'm not saying to change anything because you've had great success with your mixture, but if it was me (and I sometime make "meatballs" when I go on vacation and have to have a pet sitter feed my turtles)instead of the egg I use a calcium powder and unflavored gelatin. It also has protein in it and acts as a binder for the food. They are usually made from ground turkey and beef-I'll have to ask my broither-in-law for some venison next time I see him Tess

Tess, I work in Public Health as a Health Laboratory Scientist at my states public health lab, so I am very aware of egggs and handeling reptile risks, and am as my wife calls me a "germophobic", but I am honestly more concerned about my boxies getting eaten by a dog or racoon, or myself getting in a car accident or murdered by a human, than salmonella or any other bacteria or virus. However your point is well taken and powdered calcium and gelatin are certainly a safer and readily available alternatives. I usually try to use natural food sources as I believe there may be other trace or intangible or unbeknownst to science, nutritional benefits.
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Jeff Benfer
gartersnakemorph.com