I have 2 eastern box turtles, female, hokie, male, pokie, I had hokie for 3 years now, pokie was just found in July 2007. I just discovered 4-5 eggs in my cage outside for my turtles, all caged in, no predictors can reach them, heavy beams of wood on top of cage to protect preditors, anyway, how do I care for these eggs?Winter months???Outside?Inside?... will not touch and remove the eggs, I refuse to, so what can I do to preserve them in the winter months, found eggs,Aug 15, 2007, now I know it could be anywhere from 2-3months or longer, what do I do when cold weather sets in???the adult ones go into hibernation inside house, what about the babies??Can anyone help me ,please??Thank u.
Answers:
leave the eggs alone, make sure they are covered up and make sure they get plenty of moisture...eggs will hatch in late fall after a heavy rain (or sometimes they over winter in the nest) either way they will hatch after a heavy rain, you need to keep a watch on the nest, after the babies emerge you can leave them outside if you provide plenty of coverage (like hay or straw) or you can bring them inside...sometimes they won't eat at first, just be patient, try fishing worms and canned cat food and red foods like tomatoes, strawberries and cantaloupe
Keep them Warm, I'm not very sure, Call a Local Marine Place.
If the eggs are not buried in a good nest, they are not likely to be fertile. Dropping undeveloped eggs when stressed is a common response for turtles.
Try the incubation article at http://www.tortoise.org (general care articles) for how to incubate and care for the babies.
I would suggest that Pokie should be released. Found turtles are often illegal to keep (almost every state they are in protects them in the wild because of their overall threatened status) and usually infested with parasites that will infect Hokie. The stress of the worms, or the presence of the strange make in a smallish habitat could have caused the stress.
A good care site is http://www.boxturtlesite.info
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Turtles should not be taken from the wild, as doing so can have a devastating effect on the local population, due to their slow reproductive rate. Many turtle species (including the eastern box turtle) are in severe decline, due in part to collecting but also habitat loss, cars and lawnmowers.
ReplyDeleteReleasing turtles back into the wild is complicated. Turtles are territorial and know their home ranges. Thus they should be released where they were found (and if found in a road, moved across and deposited safely in the direction they're headed, 30-50 feet from the road.) Transplanted turtles are likely to roam and probably won't reproduce. I don't know what two years in captivity will do to a turtle, and whether it would recognize its home territory after such a long absence. If there's a nature center nearby with a resident biologist who knows something about turtles or better still has a reintroduction and/or tracking program, that may be your best bet.
This website has some good information on the perils turtles face and the issues surrounding releasing them.
http://www.mckeever.org/turtle.html