u/Electronic__Egg

Hello! So the little box i found after construction tore up his habit is doing nice and well! He eats every 2 days. His favorite are worms and isopods, though I've also offered other small insects like crickets and mealworms (which i provide both live and dead soaked in water) He likes collard greens quite a bit and carrots. He wasn't a fan of squash, though, left it untouched. I've offered all 3 colors of bell pepers, and he also didn't touch them. I offer fruits in small amounts once a week, so far he's liked blueberries, water melon was a huge hit, apples and banana were the last choices but did get eaten.

As far as his tank, I ve got it balanced with one side maintaining about 89 F° and the other hovers around 78 F during the day and down to about 75 F at night. The humity in the tank sits roughly at 75%. He has constant access to a pool that i designed with rocks to have a gradual slope where he has access to water anywhere from around .25 inches deep to about 1 inch deep.

Now, about 2 weeks ago, I noticed he was spending pretty much all day in the deeper end of the pool, and I began to grow worried that he may drown himself. I did a bit of looking into their natural behavior and found out they used mud to cool off, so i gave him a small little mud pool about a .5 inch deep, and now he's spending all day there

Is this a behavior I should be worried about, or is it typical of one this young? And is there any risk of him drowning? Its not deep enough for him to completly bury in there (and the mud is close to a sandcastle consistency) but I've noticed foten he gets deep enough just the tip of his nose is sticking out. Also, could this be an issue with the tank? Could it be too hot?

Unfortunately, construction is still underway, and rain in the area has delayed some of it, so it may be a bit longer than I have him. I've contacted local wildlife offices and got the same response from most, that he way to healthy for them to take, and to just release him back into the area he was found once construction completes

Hi! So recently, while on a walk, i found a rather small box turtle. Normally, I'd have left it alone as we live quite far in the middle of nowhere, Tennessee, but as of late, there is a huge amount of construction by my home and they sre tearing up all the ground where he was found and in the surrounding area

I've had turtles before, red ear sliders, so I'm not overly unfamiliar with turtles, but I don't know a whole lot about them on a care levle, just what I've found on Google

I don't plan to keep the poor thing long term, just untill they are done ripping up the top soil, which they said will be another 2 or so months, but I want to provide for him while he's in my care the best I can

I've had him for 2 weeks now. He's regularly eating every 2 ish days as I've seen. I've been giving him fresh food dailt, though im unsure if this is within good husbandry. I own hermit crabs that I regularly feed live bugs, fruit, and vegetables too already, so from what I've found, I've got a lot of the right stuff to feed.

Right now I've been offering him small worms, isopods, mealworms, as well as offering fruits cut into small peices like apples, watermelon (only the once becausei know its high in sugar and google said thats not the best for them, and darker leafy greens like to incude red leaf lettuce and romain, I hand raise there bugs again for the crabs)

I had a spare 60-gallon tank laying around, alongside a heat mat and a soaking pool. So I picked up some coconut fiber for him and layerd it about 3 inches thick and set up some basic hides and the pool (declorinated), i also placed a few pothos that i had growing in my crabs tank, I washed with pet safe anti bug spray then rinsed with water to ensure no transfers of anything as was unsure if they could harm eachother, and set them around the hides and pool so he had a safer place to hide in.

My concerns are this, have I got all the basic husbandry down, and if now what do I need to do to ensure he'll be okay during his stay? What can I do to enrich the tank if required for them? Also should I be separating him into a small container for eating, I see this alot with other turtle owners as well as hand feeding, but since I'm releasing him i don't want to accidently domestic him