turtle won't eat

amandamari · #1 (**permalink**) 01-28-2004, 01:29 AM

I have a box turtle and it doesn't eat at all....any suggestions...

JuliusSqueezer · #2 (**permalink**) 01-28-2004, 02:00 AM

normally I would say ...then eat the turtle...but box turtle is toxic so don't do that. It might help if you tell us what kind of box turtle, what you have offered it and what your cage temps are...also has it ever eaten for you? how big is it? w/c or c/b? any UV light? any crusty eye goo? deformed shell? Please give us more details.

louise · #3 (**permalink**) 01-28-2004, 02:07 AM

i know your turmoil!

amandamari · #4 (**permalink**) 01-28-2004, 06:42 AM

Sigh, yea it's not too fun. Well, April is an eastern box turtle. I've offered her...lets see..collard greens, mustard greens, many other greens.....haha, squash, applies, bananas, string beans, meal worms, earth worms, snails, hardboiled eggs, plum...and other things...but I can't really remember every single thing. It is only about 80 degrees in its tote and I've been trying to get the temp up but it's hard to keep it up there because our house is so cold especially in the winter. She is about...6 inches I'm guessing...and I'm not sure about the w/c or c/b because she was a gift when I was in 5th grade from my grandma! gah why did she have to get me a turtle without reading about the whole "don't get turtles for children as beginning pets" but anyway..she has the proper lighting. BUT, what I have realized is that recently is that she has had swollen eyes so I've made sure to mist her and keep her humidity up...and I guess that hasn't changed anything..even though I'm not sure how quickly that is supposed to fix the problem if it's humidity related. Today I did talk to my mom about taking her to the vet and she agreed to do so so maybe we can fix the problem or find out the reason behind her swollen eyes because I'm not sure if its the humidity anymore. Also, my mom says that for every year she goes into the phase of not eating during the winter so maybe its just something that she always does. My mom has taken care of her for many years because she has a kennel and used to keep her there until recently when I took over her care. I've read that turtles not eating during the winter, when not in hybernation, is a bad thing so I have been worrying about her eating...anyway..I completely forgot what my point of posting was...so yea.

John_White · #5 (**permalink**) 01-28-2004, 11:26 AM

The most common cause of swollen eyes in box turtles is a Vitamin A deficiency.

JuliusSqueezer · #6 (**permalink**) 01-30-2004, 02:13 AM

Yah...what John said...she really should have been cooled down for the winter...but with the avitaminosis problem, at this point it would probably kill her. Gonna need to go see a vet. I live in the southeast and they are crawling everywhere here so I have never felt a need to keep one past a week or two...so I really don't have any input as far as proper care based on any real experience. I can tell you how to bondo a cracked shell though LOL done that plenty of times. No telling how many box turtles are crawling around GA with my initials carved in the bondo on their backs.

gemisnake · #7 (**permalink**) 01-30-2004, 03:18 AM

Ok I went through the refusing to eat thing with all three of the box turtles I ever had. The magic that worked for me was crickets. They gobbled up the crickets and then they started eating like mad, but all enjoyed crickets the most. Good luck, box turtles are by no means easy to care for as I have found out with 3 rescued ones. Oh I miss them though, they were adopted once healthy and now I wish I would have kept at least one as a personal pet.

Ed_r · #8 (**permalink**) 01-30-2004, 04:38 AM

have you tried A more meatier diet? Mine would eat superworms, Fish, turkey, and at times pinky mice. Along with fruitsas a treat. People dont realize that box turtles are also carnimores too.

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