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Surprise visitor

Went out into my backyard to water raspberries, and guess what I found?
Box turtles are quite possibly endangered here in CO, so this is not a common sight. I hope he sticks around for a while.






It's a love turtle! :D JK







~hcarlton
 
Nice find! Pretty markings, too.
 
Very nice, they're relatively common along the highways down here in NM
 
Thats so cool "love turtle" LOL. My dog had a heart shape like that on his forehead. Now i miss my turtle:( all we have around were i live are frogs and a couple lizards every now and then.
 
We think this guy might be one of two my dad rescued from a highway a few years back. There's a pretty good chance we're right, too, as there's never any sightings of these guys anywhere near my house.
 
Your he is she. The irises of a male's eyes are red/orange.
 
Were you trying to feed him lettuce pic number 5 by his back foot
 
Yeah, tried. They don't really eat much when the only thing they see is my heeler sticking her nose right into their face, though...... :D yes, I also know they like to eat other things more, but, hey, what I had was what I had, and can't blame the little sister I have for trying to keep the tortoise around with treats...... by the way, SubRosa, we used to have a male and female box turtle at my school, but neither had red irises.... you sure you're thinking about the right species?
 
I know definitively the iris ID holds true for Easterns, Southerns, and Three Toes which are all species I've caught/kept over the years. Did the male/female pair you're referring to ever produce viable eggs?
 
  • #10
SubRosa is correct. Male ornate box turtles will have red irises, more markings on the shell, a concave plastron, thick tail and almost always, a yellow head.
 
  • #11
I see. And we never "kept" the box turtles around, so I wouldn't have a clue if they would have made eggs or not. Like I said, last I saw either of them was about 4 or 5 years ago, they stay pretty hidden under the deck I'm assuming.......
 
  • #12
Aww!! What a little cutie. They are pretty common around here. I get them by my pond all the time, but it must be something special to see them where they are endangered. Even though they aren't endangered here, I will still pull over to help one across the street. I love the crazy looks people in the neighborhood give me! :-D
 
  • #13
Turtles are nice. I remember that once I visited a creek/river that I didn't know the name of, and one of the people who ran a snack bar/refreshments stand found a tiny baby snapping turtle! It was only about an inch long but already had its ferocious bite and took a good-sized chunk out of a hot dog (good-sized in proportion to the turtle). I almost took it home and put it in my pond until I remembered that they grow huge and easily can take off a few fingers. A shame, though, 'cause it was really cute!
 
  • #14
We have a snapping turtle at my high school, saved him after he was hit by a car. I named him Verne.
 
  • #15
You can almost certainly count on having it stick around as long as there's food, water, and suitable spots to hibernate. As a kid I caught and released the same male Eastern for 8 years in a row. I'd find him in the spring, bring him in for the summer and release him in the fall. If we hadn't moved I'd probably still be doing it 40 years later.
 
  • #16
Well there's probably plenty of that here, more now since I've managed to get lettuce and spinach, among other things, growing wild in my yard.....
 
  • #17
You should try offering it some different stuff as well. They have very individualized tastes, and the Eastern I referred to earlier would take pineapple over anything else I tried. Strawberries are usually a very attractive food to them as well.
 
  • #18
So maybe that's what kept munching my tomatoes last year.....
 
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