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sweetannie4u

Resident Land Turtle - You'll Never Guess What He Likes to Eat!

Annie
14 years ago

Last week I was out filling the water basin around the apple tree. I had applied a thick layer of manure hay in an attempt to revive my poor drought-stressed tree. I needed to water it every other day to allow the manure and water to get down to the trees roots. When the basin was filled to the rim of the basin, I would move the hose over to the nearby shrubs and spray them, rinsing off the dust and giving them a drink, too. When the water around the tree had disappeared, I moved the hose back to the tree and filled it again. The cats had been romping nearby, always following me about the garden when I work. As I turned the hose back to the tree, something came out of the shrubs towards me and just caught my eye. Thinking it was probably one of the little cats who had been in the bushes where I sprayed, I turned to see not a cat, but a turtle! It was an Ornate Box Turtle and he was tripping out from under the bushes and heading straight for me! They are very shy creatures, so this amazed me. He immediately began gobbling up something on the ground near my feet. I was astonished to see him eating those, so I laid down the hose in the water basin, and ran as fast as I could into the house to get my camera. When I returned, he was stilled there and still eating. Great! I was able to get a series of photos of him eating. He gobbled them up like candy! I never knew these particular turtles ate these particular things, as they have a very specialized diet consisting mostly of insects, like June Bugs to name one. What an amazing thing to witness!

To find out what he was eating, go to my PhotoBucket account and see if you will be as surprised as I was.

~Annie

Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's PhotoBucket

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