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Ok guys I've had this little guy since friday and I haven't yet seen him eat. I offered red words, box turtle pellets (they smell fruity), shrimp pellets for fish, and RES pellets. I thought maybe he's not eating because he was recently re-homed, but I do worry. He is very active, moving around the enclosure and burying himself, and soaks in his water dish pretty often, and seems to be quite content.

How long did you have to wait before yours would eat? And what did he/she eat first.

Keep in mind mine is just a tiny little guy, maybe two inches.

Try crickets. Hatchling boxies love crickets..

Anything that moves should get him eating. Try something slow moving like a silkworm or butter worm.

I think I had my baby boxie for about a week before he actually ate. It took me about a year to get him to eat fruits/veggies but he still refuses pellets after 3 years.

http://turtle_tails.tripod.com/raisingb ... /tour1.htm

Go to this site and see how he feeds his and look at his set ups. It is a great site with lots of pictures.

I tried regular old red worms, he didn't seem even a little interested in them. I'll get some crickets asap. Other than not wanting to eat anything I offer, he's doing good I'm pretty happy about that lol.

My baby boxies did not eat for awhile after I got them. They weren't interested at all in anything but hiding.

Is your little guy hiding a lot? Mine would pretty much run away from the food dish as soon as I set them in front of it. One day I just decided to keep putting them in front of it until they would eat. After about 45 minutes of that, they noticed the worms moving around and finally ate something.

Mine mostly hides too. But I did buy 6 crickets and they're all gone now so either they are masters of escape or he ate them. I'm not sure, I never caught him in the act.

I put him in a new tank last week, so now he has all kinds of room, but he choses to hide in the same spot, all the time

imma doubt that he ate them, only cause it took Carolina LITERALLY 7 minutes to eat one, slow moving meal worm. i have it on tape too.

it took me a few weeks to get Carolina to eat, and believe me that was a nerve-racking time. i give her a mix of box turtle pellets soaked in tuna juice to soften them up and blood worms

have you tried an earthworm? thats the first thing carolina ate for me

Mine loved (and still does) small butter worms.

Ya...I doubt that he at them. Crickets are masters of escape and hiding. I always monitor them when I give the turts crickets. Whenever the cricket gets out of eyesight of the turtle I have to put it back. And this is with cutting the rear legs of btw as well.

Babies hiding is very normal. Have you gotten him to eat yet? Live, squirmy worms are the only thing that got my babies attention. And I had to keep setting him back down in front of the worm also.

One thing I did when I had just got mine is used mostly plain topsoil for substrate, kept it moist, and then I got a 100 pack of the small red wriggly earth worms and just dumped em in there. That way the babies would have something to hunt that felt more natural to them. They did go after them. I would often see them pulling worms out of the ground and munching on them.

oh, btw, you said "new tank". What kind of enclosure is it? Boxies don't do well with aquarium/terrium style tanks. They get stressed out and want to hide even more. They need something they can't see through. Just FYI....

I have my boxie in a 75 gal vivarium...back and sides covered with aquarium background paper, and 6 in across the front. I can see in but she can't see out. Also a vivarium (especially if it's planted) is good for keeping in the humidity for a hatchling or juvie boxie. An adult should go outside if at all possible. I know many breeders who like to keep their hatchlings and juvies in a tank vivarium with moss. It is the best way to keep in humidity and a screen top with a long tube UVB filters the "sun rays" just as it would on the forest floor. Add plenty of leaf litter, and you are mimicking the natural habitat of forest dwelling species.

That doesn't even look like a tank if you take out the little thermometer thing!

Ok. First, there was no way the crickets got out, so he had to have eaten them. He's surprisingly pretty fast, at least faster than I would've thought. And they aren't hiding under anything in there, so... I dunno. Maybe they evaporated lol.

Second, I did try earthworms. I put two in there and I'm pretty sure he ate them because when I changed him into another tank I couldn't find the little buggers. I dug through his dirt and everything.

He is in a 30 gal aquarium for now, he's only about 2 inches long, so I think it'll be ok for now. I did my home work and I know glass isn't the best thing for them because they can see out and blah blah blah. So I actually did try to set up my enclosure in the best less stressful way possible.

He has soily-sandish dirt as the substrate, about 2.5 inches. Then there is leaf litter on top. I just planted some spider plants in there, will be getting moss soon, and he has a wooden log hide. His water dish is plenty deep enough for him yet shallow enough for him to get out of easily. He has a screne top to filter his lighting, and I mist at least 3 times each day. I'm hoping the plants will help with that, and the moss of course.

Thanks for all the suggestions I did do my homework on this little guy but I always welcome those who are more experienced.

Sounds like you are doing everything right. 30 gal is fine for a 2 1/2 in. boxie...for now. Good for you.

There's some great pictures on this site...
http://turtle_tails.tripod.com/raisingb ... /tour1.htm