Hey, yall!
We rescued a box turtle from the middle of the road July 4th weekend. She had a “bump-not-really-a-crack” in her shell, so although we managed not to run over her, someone else must have bumped her. Our little girl wanted to keep it & hubby said we could IF she would eat.
We kept her in a wagon in the garage for a week to make sure she was eating & pooping & she was.
The next weekend, we built her an outside pen where she can get sun & shade, provided a pool of water (one of those plastic trays you sit under your potted plants – which gets cleaned out twice per day), provided a “hidey space,” etc.
She’s been fine until the past few days. Now she stays in her hidey hole (covered with leaves & grass) & won’t come out. Hasn’t eaten even the blueberries (which she LOVES). She looked at me this morning & she looked dry, which confirmed my suspicion that she’s not getting in her pool, either.
My suspicions are:
- She’s reacting to the unseasonably cool weather we’re having. We live just South of Atlanta, and lately the mornings have been pretty cool, even the afternoons not as hot as would be normal for us. Maybe she thinks she should get ready for hibernation? But she’s not digging, just hiding under the leaves & grass clippings.
- She’s laying eggs. I hope not, because I know the ground is hard (red Georgia clay under a an inch of top soil), so she couldn’t have dug deep enough to lay & cover them properly.
Should I just reach in & take her out of her hidey hole – where she obviously feels comfortable – and sit her in her pool? Should I just spray a little water in there to give her some moisture? What do you think could be going on and should I be concerned?
