Box Turtle and Tortoise Discussion :: Box Turtle NOT EATING

[imderanged]

I have a 2 1/2 year old eastern box turtle. I've had her since the day after she hatched, she was given to me by an acquaintance who hatched her. She has always been a picky eater. She eats mostly super worms and reptomin. She refuses every sort of fruit and vegetable I offer her. Quite a while ago she developed a "cross bite" and I posted on here about it. It didn't stop her from eating and she continued to eat and act normally. More recently she seems to have stopped eating. I don't think I've seen her eat for a month!!! The cross bite has not seemed to get any worse. I only mention it as a possible issue, I am not at all sure it actually has anything to do with this. Another contributing factor may be that her MVB blew and have been very low on cash. I have been using a regular light bulb and a ceramic heat emitter so she isn't getting UVB. I just got a new job but it doesn't start until September. Every day she hides in the dirt. I dig her up and offer her food...fruit veggies and her favorites, reptomin & worms, but she ignores them, crawls away and re-buries herself. I would think maybe she was trying to bruminate but it is summer here. She has me worried enough that I have been thinking of taking her to the vet, but I don't have much faith in the herp vets around here and technically I do not think I'm supposed to have a Box Turtle in NJ...I plan on getting her a new MVB as soon as I get my first pay check and tomorrow I am going to take her outside for some real sunshine and also give her a soak in warm water. Please, if anyone has any other suggestions, let me know!

this is what her beak looks like:

[jenaero]

If I had to guess, I'd say that poor diet has led to the mouth issues. Going without UVB for any length of time isn't going to help her. If you already have a heat emitter, just pick up a regular uvb bulb. Reptisun 5.0 or higher. Those are way cheaper than the mvb bulbs. I think you should take some time to find a herp vet in your area if you haven't already. At least to get her beak looked at. It's possible it can be filed down and corrected before it starts interfering with her eating (if it hasn't already). Another solution to that is to get her in the habit of eating cuttlebone. Just like your RES, she'll get calcium from it, and it will help keep her beak trimmed. It took my boxie a while to figure out he could eat it, but I think the natural smell of it helps them figure it out.

As far as the diet, superworms have very little nutritional value. Better than mealworms, but not a great staple. Some boxies can be quite picky and it's up to us to correct it as best we can. My 6 year old boxie will only eat live food/fruits/veggies and has never accepted any kind of commercial food. We just have to work around their quirks. Try offering earthworms, butterworms, silkworms, horn worms, crickets.. any of these would be an improvement. You might find that if you offer something that looks different and wiggles it might get her attention enough to make her at least try a bite. Especially now, as she should be good and hungry. Offering brightly coloured fruits and veggies could work also. Over-ripe strawberries, raspberries and blueberries are a favourite for mine. For veggies, I'll throw together some mixed greens and to get him to eat carrots, I had to cut them in a way that they looked like worms on top of his salad.

First thing you want to do though, is make sure her health isn't an issue. Get the beak checked, and keep her warm enough. What are the temps now? Are her eyes and nose clear of any discharge? Is she breathing clearly?

[imderanged]

The temps in her enclosure range from about 78F on the rock under the lamps to 70F on the other side. It used to be warmer with the MVB. Her eyes and breathing are good. I have given her cuttle bone, I'll try again. Right now she has one of these: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/p ... agpspn=pla but she hasn't touched it. I have tried all kinds of fruit including strawberries and blueberries and she wouldn't even try it but I will keep offering it. I tried all kind of greens that I give to my Dragon & Russian tort too but she doesn't look at them. I gave her things they are supposed to love, squash, tomato, she won't taste it. I try putting the worms or reptomin on top and it doesn't work. I know superworms aren't a great staple but it was honestly the only thing I could get her to eat and now she won't eat them either I tried ordering phoenix worms online but no one ever seems to have them in stock. I tried both red wigglers from the pet shop and night crawlers from the bait shop and she didn't bite. There is only ONE store in my area that carries (sometimes) horn worms, and they charge $1 a worm. I tried them anyway, but she didn't like them either. I've tried to get different shops to order silk worm, Phoenix worms etc, they all say they will try but no one ever does. The only things I can get locally are Crickets, Superworms, Mealworms and Wax worms. Crickets just run away from her and she doesn't catch them. I will try wax worms again. I tried box turtle pellets and box turtle canned food, she won't eat those at all but she did eat my aquatic turtles reptomin. I figured that at least has some plant material in it so I gave in and let her have it. I soaked her in warm water and took her outside for some real sun yesterday but she still didn't eat, but she drank. Today she is awake so maybe that is a good sign. It's overcast but I will give her another bath to warm her up and try and feed her again. I have some canned pumpkin I am going to put a little right on her beak to try and get her to taste it. I am going to buy her a new bulb as soon as I can. I have a herp vet I used when my dragon had worms, but they were a dog & cat vet that occasionally saw reptiles. They treated Vlad's parasites well enough, but it seemed to me the whole office was a little too excited to see a dragon...as if they didn't actually see them that often, you know what I mean? I am not convinced they have the experience to deal w/ this. There is another vet 45 minutes away I have heard good things about, but I have to check and see if they will see a box turtle ...I should be able to scrape together the money for a bulb soon, but I won't have the money for the vet until I start my new job I really feel terrible, I know "you shouldn't have pets if you can't pay to care for them" but I HAD a job when I got her, I lost it due to getting sick .

[jenaero]

She's not warm enough. The basking side should be 85-90F. I'm betting if you warm her up properly, that after a few days she'll eat again. Until then, it likely won't matter what you offer. If she's not warm enough she's not going to digest properly and she knows it.

[imderanged]

OK! Thank you so much for your input. I honestly was under the impression high 70F's was warm enough! I will work on getting her warmer right away.

[imderanged]

I just wanted to let you know, I borrowed the money for a new ZooMed Powersun 100w & picked up the last one at the pet store. It should definitely get her enclosure warmer & get her the UVB she needs. I also still have her heat emitter on to give her a little extra heat until she starts eating. I'll check the temp in a few hours to see where it is. I gave her a new cuttle bone last night too. I still plan on getting her beak checked after I start my new job next month. Thank again for the constructive criticism.

[jenaero]

Hopefully I'm right and you see improvement soon Try something smelly/tempting the first meal. A spoonful of wet cat/dog food or some of those god-awful canned crix/grasshoppers. Keep us posted Btw, here's the best boxie care sheet out there http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/c ... nboxie.htm

[imderanged]

Got the temps up to 85-88F on the warm side the last few days, but she's still hiding out under her coco fiber bedding. I gave her a warm bath and have her in a small rubbermaid (if I put her in her enclosure she just goes back to her hiding spots without looking at the food twice and I cannot easily observe her to see if she does eat..) on top of a heating pad right now, temp is about 85F, I'm trying a little wet cat food W/ some reptomin poked in it w/ a wax worm on top...I even put a little cat food on her beak... so far no good

[imderanged]

She's eating a wax worm RIGHT NOW! Her second one! So happy.

[jenaero]

That's good news! She just needed some time to warm up

[imderanged]

Jenaero, I just wanted to to take a moment to thank you for taking time out to give me advice, Gherkin is continuing to eat (of course it is STILL just worms but she is EATING!) I really appreciate it.

Now all we have to do is get her to eat her veggies, lol.

[jenaero]

I'm not around a lot but I do my best to help when I can. Did her beak get fixed/looked at? How often do you feed her the reptomin and worms? Tough love will usually do the trick to get them to eat veggies. I'm thinking it was a year or two before my boxie would think of lettuce as food. About once a week for now, try offering only salad/fruit/veggies for a few days. Usually when they get hungry enough they'll eat anything. Also, you could put those nasty canned bugs on top or mix them in with finely chopped veggies and gradually increase the size of veg and decrease the amount of bugs. Or spread wet cat/dog food on the salad and see if that gets her to try it. Anyway, getting fruit/veggies into the diet is important so I hope some of these tricks work for you.