AboutMark Adkins Expertise I will be glad to help with your tortoise- and turtle-related questions. My specialty is Red-foot and other Tortoises, but I can help with many aspects of turtle care.
Understand- I am not a vet, and the more information you can give me, the more accurate my answer can be.
(Because of the number of questions I get, I reserve the right to direct you to a good website that will help rather than re-inventing the wheel.)
Experience Tortoise and other reptile keeper since 1964.
Member of the Nebraska Herpetological Society.
Author of books and articles on tortoise care.
Currently own five Red-foot Tortoises.
Expert: Mark Adkins Date: 6/29/2008 Subject: louisiana redhead turtles
Question My daughter has a question about newborn turtles, like right out of the egg. One of the babies has a round orange like color thing attached to the bottom of it. Do you know what it is, or are we supposed to do something about it? And also what do these newborns eat? And what kind of enviroment should they live in? Thank you for your help and we will be waiting to here from you!
Answer That is the yolk sac, which will feed the baby for a while. Once it is completely absorbed, it will not eat for between a week to almost a month depending on the species.
As to what baby turtles eat, it depends on the species. Most baby water turtles are carnivores, eating mostly small worms, small bugs, etc. Baby box turtles are also carnivorous, but would eat some vegetation as well. Baby tortoises would eat mostly plants, especially succulent leaves like dandelion.
Their habitat depends on the species as well. Some water turtles like still ponds, others prefer rivers. Some box turtles like woodsy settings, others prefer open grasslands, etc.
This sounds like a wild-caught turtle. I would STRONGLY recommend that it be released back home fairly soon unless you or she is really planning on keeping a pet turtle- which is not usually the easiest pet to deal with.
New hatchlings are tough because if the yolk sac breaks in captivity, it almost always results in infection and problems, and very small turtles are hard for us to feed. In the wild, they often stay in the nest until the sac is absorbed.
