need emergency help with rescue turtle

[lele]

I just found a hatchling snapping turtle (shell 1.5"). I live in NH and it is cold! We found some herp eggs yesterday so this may be a survivor as I do not know why it is out otherwise.

We thought it was dead but has warmed up and is moving. Eyes are not open. What do I feed it? How?

Forum, website, experience - any help appreciated!

thanks,
lele

 

[Sang]

hmm well, you can feed him crickets they are very aquatic animals and very carnivorous.

crickets other insects, roaches too. depending on his size, i think you can do worms too.

hmm what else.. i know as adults you can do fish...and even mice *i wouldn't though its messy and honestly whats the point*....


id say a fairly large tank 20-30 long with an area that he can go into the water, and get up onto some kind of float device/land in order to bask would be good.


UVB and heat lamp.. im sure you can find heat requirements somewere.

 

[ponders]

Check out turtleforums.com they have care sheets for different species. Good luck, watch those fingers! Nothing cuter than baby turtles.

 

[Sang]

yes they are quiet the little devils.. i remember spending time in arkansas and not watching my fingers around one, he got me good.

 

[Rocky]

i had a baby snapping turtle that i fed little minnows that i bought from the bait store up the road. I'm not sure if there is specific requirements for them, but I had a 100g tank that i set up as a terrarium type thing with a heat lamp at the end with the ground and had the water pump in the water part. I would put like 10 minnows in at a time(little ones) and let them swim around and he would go eat them. I also had various other mosses/lilly pads in there.

It is possible that i wasn't caring for him correctly, but he lived for a year and i released him into one of my stock ponds on our land.

 

[Sang]

yes, with any aquatic set up, you are going to need a massive filter, especially if feeding live food as it can be a mess.

depending on the type of the tank you will want a filter that can proccess double the amounts of water it holds, and maybe try to find a charcoal based filter to help clean the water.. as poop can quickly become a problem if nitrate levels get to high you get bacteria and a massive amount of algae.

 

[lele]

HI all,

Thanks for the input. I ended up calling a local wildlife rehabber (that's New Hampshire for rehabilitator ) and talked to her for about 2 hours about turtles, chameleons, beardies, how screwed up laws and people are...

She gave me the option of wintering him over indoors or putting him in safe place at the edge of the pond tomorrow morning. I opted for the the first choice

Since s/he was found in a window well his/her name is Wellington and is peacefully sleeping right now. I'll set her up tomorrow and see how we do. I thought she was a hatchling but Chris (rehabber) thinks she might be a year old. Good thing as this gives her a much better shot at making it thru the winter. Will keep you posted.

Cheers,
lele

 

[kinyonga]

Here is some information...
http://www.turtlehomes.org/usa/snappingturtles.shtml

Good luck with it!

 

[Brad Ramsey]

Hey lele

We winter our eastern box turtle in the garage in a rubbermaid tub filled with leaves and peat. She buries herself and every 2 to 3 weeks I place her in a bucket of water for 1/2 an hour to make sure she stays hydrated.
The garage is cold, but it doesn't freeze.
She does not eat during this time, but stays buried and asleep.
During the warm months she lives outside in our patio garden.

-Brad

 

[kinyonga]

Wish I could just put mine in the garage! They would freeze for sure!

If you are going to hibernate the snapper, make sure that you give its stomach time to empty first so the food won't "ferment" and cause it problems.

I have heard that the hatchling snappers will overwinter the first year sometimes in the nest where the eggs were laid...but as with boxies, the area that they come from may cause this to vary. Creatures that come from such wide ranges may need different incubation techniques to suit the area where they come from. The boxie female I have now only needed to be chilled for a few days to produce good eggs whereas others have needed several months. Hopefully yours was/is actually from the area you found it in and not an "escapee" or one that was relocated.

The other thing that I have heard with the hatchling snappers is that whatever the foods are that they are first exposed to will remain their "favorites". (Wish I could find that article again to show you.) Getting water from the pond/waterway near where the nest is might be helpful. I haven't got much first-hand experience with this "theory" though.

The size you are describing is not very old....hatchlings are that size. I would expect them to be several inches longer than that by the time they are a year old.

 

[Sang]

PICS PLEASE!

But yah, as kinyoga said.

 

[lele]

Sorry I stopped replying but I stopped getting my emails telling me I had messages! I count on those as I can get too busy to check back.

Great News!! He ate last night and today!!

Thanks to all! Brad, the snapper would need to have access to water all the time, hibernating or not b/c they are aquatic turtles. I am wintering him over in regular temps, feeding, etc. not trying to keep him hibernating. Once she saw pics she did determine he was not a year old but indeed a hatchling of about 2 1/2 months, likely born early Sept. (they hatch late Aug-Oct here).

It turns out he has no left eye and some problems with his tail (cannot retract it nor straighten it out) and his hind right foot does not seem to work 100% either. It was a long drop into the window well (we will be covering it once we make sure we get all the toads out to safety (my next project - i.d. and then find out best way and place to move to so they don't dehydrate over the winter while hibernating). He was thin and quite dehydrated and would never had survived the winter either with my help or not so even though it may seem against nature (something I usually don't go against) the rehabber and I opted to give him a better start at live next spring - strong and healthy.

K- you are right, Chris said try to get him to eat the Reptomin so he doesn't get spoiled. Believe me, I have enough spoiled herps around here I don't need another, especially one that is going to be released to the wild!!

As for pics, here are his first and will update soon (will try to get some feeding shots). You can see both his good eye and his bad eye.
Wellington