western box land turtle

Question

Turtle 1  

Head   Hi!  The manager of our RV park found this turtle/tortise, this morning.  it SEEMS to be a female western land box turtle.  The shell is very dark so I suspect she's quite old.  Shes used to be handled, she watches us as we watch her, no fear.
Can you help to positivly identify her?  Also, what should we be feeding her?  Tried apples and carrots, and I understand that slugs and bugs are good, but those are not around this time of year!
She has a small aquarium for the time being, though we do hope to locate her owner.  She's about 8 inches long.

Answer
Hi Tru,

It's not a box turtle--box turtles have a hinged plastron (lower shell), but their carapace (upper shell) also tends to be very domed.  It looks like a slider, probably a yellow-bellied slider, and yes, quite old.  If you can provide a picture of her plastron and tail area, I can give a better ID and sex her for you.  She almost looks melanistic (dark phase), but I think she's so dark due to age.  You can see some pictures of sliders here:  http://chelonia.org/trachemysgallery.htm.  Sliders are aquatic turtles, so she'd need a large aquarium (at least 80 gallons, depending on her size) with filter and basking/UVB bulb.  It would be great to find her owner, although sliders are often dumped, so it might not be possible.

You can try worms, fish, superworms (they look sort of like really big mealworms), boiled chicken, greens, turtle sticks/pellets, etc.  They don't need to eat daily, especially at that size/age, so if she's been fed regularly she may not be too hungry, and being in a strange environment can affect appetite as well.  Offer food in small amounts at first to see what she likes, but offer as much variety as possible once she starts eating.  Please let me know if I can be of more help.