When you live in an interspecies flock, getting the deep, restful sleep you require can present some special challenges. For instance, maybe you are a “hibernating species,” which means you like to spend your winter season – all of it – sleeping. So you go to sleep around October or November each year, anticipating aContinueContinue reading “Day 3: Box Turtle Brumation Safety Checks”
Category Archives: Bruce
Bruce Explains Box Turtles: Seating
I will never forget the first time I walked outside to check on Bruce in his outdoor habitat and found him roosting – I kid you not – high up in his asparagus fern. He had climbed up into the center of this sprawling springy thing and balanced his plastron (under-shell) just so….he spent theContinueContinue reading “Bruce Explains Box Turtles: Seating”
Bruce Explains Box Turtles: Brumation Checks
This is Bruce’s third winter with our little flock. So this is also the third year he has brumated (hibernated) here in captivity. (I hate the word “captivity” by the way….but that is the reality of Bruce’s situation as a wild rescued box turtle who would have otherwise long ago become a road pancake. AndContinueContinue reading “Bruce Explains Box Turtles: Brumation Checks”
Bruce Explains Box Turtles: Digging
Box turtles are really amazing at digging. They have powerful front and back feet equipped with longish sharp claws that can turn them into streamlined plowing machines. Bruce, like all box turtles, craves the ability to dig. I didn’t know this when I first rescued him, and it took a lot of reading and studyingContinueContinue reading “Bruce Explains Box Turtles: Digging”
Bruce Explains Box Turtles: Agility
When I was little, I kept five water turtles – all red-eared and yellow-eared sliders. They were adorable and so agile! They could pile out of the water directly on top of one another like tiny shelled acrobats. I didn’t keep close company with shelled beings again for many years until four and a halfContinueContinue reading “Bruce Explains Box Turtles: Agility”
Bruce Explains Box Turtles: Safety Checks
When you are a homo sapiens, you have four seasons (at least in theory if you’re living in the south): spring, summer, fall and winter. When you are a box turtle, you also have four seasons: spring, estivation, fall and hibernation. During two of your seasons, you will be out and about, active, eager toContinueContinue reading “Bruce Explains Box Turtles: Safety Checks”
Bruce Explains Box Turtles: Burrowing
Bruce is a native Texas box turtle, which means his species naturally lives in the southern and central parts of our home state, as well as elsewhere (including in Missouri, which had the good taste to pick the 3-toed box turtle as their state reptile). But even though he is quite literally at home hereContinueContinue reading “Bruce Explains Box Turtles: Burrowing”
Bruce Explains Box Turtles: Feeding
Bruce is a surprisingly picky eater! This has caused his mommy many, many stressful days and nights, worrying that he isn’t eating enough or enough variety to stay healthy and strong. It doesn’t help that, aside from the collection of water turtles we routinely rescued, cared for and released when I was a youngster, MaltiContinueContinue reading “Bruce Explains Box Turtles: Feeding”
Bruce Explains Box Turtles: Turtle Safe Greenery
Keeping the shelled family members’ outdoor enclosures suitably outfitted with all the right accessories – swimming pool, hides, diverse walking surfaces, edible (or at least turtle-safe) greenery – can turn even the most brown-thumbed individual into an aspiring gardener. Here, I speak from direct personal experience. When Malti was little, she lived indoors with meContinueContinue reading “Bruce Explains Box Turtles: Turtle Safe Greenery”
Bruce Explains Box Turtles: Safety Checks
For a wild rescued box turtle, Bruce can be surprisingly social. Right from the start, he was keen to interact – on his terms. His terms meant lots of staring, plenty of running around on the floor back and forth, and occasionally coming to stand on top of my feet. During his first week withContinueContinue reading “Bruce Explains Box Turtles: Safety Checks”
Love & Feathers & Shells 