Dear Members and Friends:

Our next meeting, the Slumberama, will be held on Saturday, January 22 at the Belle Cooledge Library from 1 until 3. The library is located on the corner of Fruitridge Road and South Land Park Drive. If there is heavy fog or rain, we will cancel the meeting, so please call if you are not sure. Richard Spekner arrived too late to give a presentation at our last meeting, and I'm going to ask if he can bring some turtles to this meeting to talk about. He has a great collection at his Brentwood home and owns the PET'acular Exotics pet shop in Antioch. It is a one stop reptile shop and you can call him at 925-755-4377.

We will have snacks and a raffle, however, we are getting very low on quality raffle items. Please see if you have anything you would like to donate to a good cause. All proceeds go into the Sick Turtle Fund. We would like to see your turtle related Christmas gifts as well. I have three ready to show for your enjoyment. And if you'd like to donate yours to the raffle, that would be great, altho the person who gave it to you might not appreciate it. (We'll never tell!!)

Let's give a huge THANK YOU to Father Dimitri who came to the Fall meeting and set up his pre-hibernation clinic outside of the library room on a very windy and cold afternoon. He patiently inspected each turtle and tortoise presented to him and gave excellent advice to the owners. There was a long line of people waiting for his examinations and they all said it was well worth the wait. Several of you donated money to Dimitri, but he would not dream of accepting it and we then applied it to the Sick Turtle Fund. The Club thanks you very much for your kindness and generosity.

SEE YOU ALL AT THE MEETING.
WE'LL KEEP IT SHORT AND SWEET!!

WINTER HINTS: This is the time to read all you can about the species you have and perhaps what you might want to own in the future. It's best not to mix species so try to keep each type in its own enclosure. And don't overload your yard with too many creatures. You won't be able to enjoy them due to all of the work you'll be doing to keep them clean and fed.

Raccoons and possums are doing a lot of damage this winter. I dread the heartbreaking phone calls I receive. Don't know what bit off your turtle's legs? A possum will usually eat the entire turtle out of its shell. But a raccoon will leave it maimed, bleeding, suffering. And it will be near a source of water because raccoons like to wash their food before eating it. I had a huge rat invasion in the yard last fall, but no turtles were harmed. They seemed to be going after the corn on the cob I would leave out for the turtles after they polished off all of the grapefruits in my tree. It was a frightening experience. They would come pouring out of the tree at sundown. Keep your eyes open at all times. The Driveway Patrol works very well to alert you if a predator is out there.

Thank you all so much for your wonderful Christmas cards, many with dues PLUS enclosed which is greatly appreciated. I wish you all a very Happy New Year and I hope all of your dreams come true. We are entering our 24th year and I owe all of the success to YOU. Without your constant support, we would have evaporated long ago. We have made life much better for so many turtles and tortoises and I hope to continue for many more years.

As I write in the middle of December, it is obvious that Fat Betty has no intention of hibernating. Word has spread throughout The Bunker and her Russian, Greek and Hermanni friends along with several box turtles have decided to join her in the afternoon sun each day. Nighttime temperatures have been in the low 30's but it does not mean anything to them. 50 degrees seems to be the deciding factor when it comes to hibernation. If the temperature stays below 50, 99% of the turtles and tortoises will stay alseep, but once the temperature climbs to 50 or above, they come out to bask for the day. All we keepers can do is watch and keep our fingers crossed and hope for an early Spring - which this behavior indicates. If your turtles are also doing this, don't worry about it and do not feed them. You only have to worry if they don't seek shelter after sundown. That means they are not feeling very well.

Inside of the Greenhouse, Blondie seems restless this winter, pacing about as if she would like to lay eggs again. But she goes back onto the heating mat as the sun goes down. Tarzan Jr., Clyde and Chester seem content as do the assorted small Sulcatas that have been turned in for adoption.

They were upset at being in a cardboard box indoors. In the greenhouse, they can roam around and I believe they think they are outside.

Throughout the winter, sliders arrive on my doorstep because they have gotten too large for their aquariums in which they should not be kept in the first place or the people are moving or it was their child's pet who has now gone off to college.............I smile and take them in. I was able to acclimate quite a few to the outdoor ponds before winter hit but now it's too late and the new ones must stay indoors until the weather warms up.

And so it goes throughout these long dark winter months. We miss our pets so much. We wonder how they are doing. We wonder if perhaps we should have kept them awake. We kick ourselves for being lazy and letting them hibernate. We worry and then we worry some more when it is raining or freezing. But then - one day in late February or March, we see one or two of our friends again, sitting out in the sunshine and we know we did the right thing. I will forever be impressed at how they withstand the rigors of winter. They are so small and winter is so big.

Carapace Pitting in Terrapene

by Darrell Senneke

One of the most common health questions relating to wild caught captive American box turtles relates to the presence of small pits on the carapace. These are most typically found in three-toed box turtles, Terrapene Carolina triunguis.

There are a number of different reasons given anecdotally for the presence of these pits. One of the most prevalent of these is that they are the result of the use of tongs by hunters as they dragged the turtle out of its hibernation quarters or its burrow. While this supposition is attractive as it both calls attention to the collection of a species in the wild and the related cruelty of the same, it has no bearing in fact. Yes, Terrapene are collected from the wild, often in non-sustainable numbers and yes, this is a practice that we do not support in any way. The usual placement of the pits as well as the presence of many of these on specimens examined in the wild lays that theory to rest. As further evidence against this theory is the fact that wild Terrapene are collected in numbers generally by picking them up from country roads after rain or by using tongs during collection. The symmetric nature as well as the location of the markings discounts the source of them being dogs or other wild animals.

Another theory is that this is a result of mating behavior, the usual placement of the pitting corresponds closely with the placement of the front feet of males during mating. Males also will often mount other males during combat in the same manner. Keeping in mind that the keratin of a turtle's shell is living tissue, it requires no extraordinary leap of logic to reason that the shell after enduring small scratches in the seam between the scutes will over time develop small infections resulting in the pits, even on males.

The only problem in the above theory is that it does not explain why this pitting occurs almost exclusively in T.c.triunguis rather than all Terrapene, who mate and engage in combat in the same manner. It is the opinion of this author that mating and combat does have a partial responsibility for the pitting but that there is something else specific to the environment of T.c.triunguis that capitalizes on the scratching of the carapace resulting in the pits. In any event, no treatment is required. The pits are natural and their exact cause is unknown.

Reprinted from TURTLE NEWS, The Newsletter of the Fresno Turtle and Tortoise Association February 2004