Here is my three toed box turtle, Turtella (Tella). She is 5 years old. Here she is enjoying some meal worms with her dinner: I also have a question about her nails. Some are pretty long, and even curl over a bit, but I read you shouldn't cut them. What can I do about the length? I tried a brick in her enclosure, but she didn't use it.
Because the nails are dark it would be best to let a vet clip her nails, her beak looks like it could use a little trimming too. Stop feeding her on smooth dishes. Get a couple of unglazed terra cotta plant saucers or feed her on top of flat stones. This will help keep her beak worn in the future. Get rid of the wood chips, these are not ideal to use for box turtles. They can get wet and mold very quickly. This is a respiratory infection waiting to happen. A better substrate to use would be a mix of topsoil and peat moss. She'll be able to dig in this and that will help her claws too. I see some shell deformation as well, it would be good to let a vet check her over in case she needs any other supplementing/vitamin shots. What's her normal diet like? What I see there is kind of a poor choice, but you may feed her different stuff on other days. What UVB do you use for her? And are you a member over at TCS? The pet list looks familiar.
She gets a range of veggies/and fruits, earth worms,meal worms,4 different kinds of commercial pellets,Calcium supplement on top,and she has always liked baby food. Theres also a 'Turtle bone' Cuttle bone thing in there, which she does eat (I thinks its purpose was to help trim her beak, and calicum) She has a UVB light (Tropical), and a basking light. And shes in a 70 gallon storage bin..until I can make her an outdoor enclosure. (Which I will try next summer. Might at well keep her inside this winter). I definitely know how to trim animals nails (I know what a quick is, and where it is..and I see it on her nails) I was just wondering if I CAN trim her nails. I trim ALL my pets nails, even my hamsters. and I do have an account, but i don't post at TCS anymore.
I didn't say that you didn't know how to trim nails, but she may still need a vet visit. Just to double check the beak and shell. The cuttle bone alone isn't always enough to help, and certainly not if there's a problem already. Unless I'm mistaken the tropical type UVB tubes are lower in percentage of UVB produced then the desert ones. You need to have 8% or higher. MVB's would of course be a better choice since you're using a large tub. The pellets really aren't that great... I'm not the only turtle keeper to feel this way. Look at the ingredients, a lot of them have bad preservatives and corn as one of the main ingredients as well. Besides that, if you're giving her plenty of insects and pellets you could very well be giving her too much protein. If used in the diet, they should only be given about once a week, with insect given a couple times a week. Overhaul the diet a bit. You can't fix what's already been caused, but at least you can prevent more damage to any of the organs. If you want to know a trick to preparing veggie meals in advance, let me know. Do you use a multivitamin supplement? Do you have a schedule that works in calcium with D3 into supplementing? Again, I really suggest a vet visit to make sure there are no other health problems that could shorten her life. There is very noticeable shell and facial deformation, this could be from too much protein, lack of a specific vitamin, not enough UVB, or a combination of all of those. Turtles are not suppose to look like that. Sorry if I sound harsh here - but please get this turtle to a herp vet.
I agree that a vet visit would be beneficial. Her shell doesn't look quite right and her beak doesn't either. Leslie
