1, living environment
At present, the yellow-edged soft-shelled turtle and golden-headed box turtle are only distributed in the mountain streams of Guba, Caicun and Gu Feng Township in Jingxian County, Anhui Province, with the distribution range of 30 27' to 30 52' north latitude. There are 80-240 golden-headed box turtles in the range of about 80km2. Because of people's activities, the range of habitats is shrinking, resulting in a sharp decline in their number. Yellow-edged turtles are mostly distributed in the tributaries of Qingyi River. It is more common on the edge of the forest or on the overgrown hills with sparse shrubs. The activity place is close to the water source, and it is mostly hidden under the roots during the day. The quiet and dark places in the gaps change with the seasons. /kloc-The temperature is high from October to August, and it is mainly active at night. In April-May and September 9- 10/0, the temperature is low, the temperature difference between day and night is large, there are few activities in the morning and evening, and there are many activities around noon. When the temperature drops below 10℃, it is mostly on sunny slopes, hidden in haystacks and under rotten leaves.
2. Lifestyle
The yellow-edged turtle is an amphibious turtle, but it is mainly terrestrial. It can't live in a dry environment for a long time, and likes to take a bath and drink water often. Yellow-edged turtles are more hungry, but not thirsty. If it doesn't drink water for a long time, it will die because of lack of water in the body. Yellow-edged turtles breathe with their lungs. If it is cultivated in an environment with a water depth of more than 30 cm for a long time, it will suffocate and die. So some turtle friends will put them in the water for half an hour after receiving them. Well, they died the next day. Now you know why. Yellow-edged turtles like clean water environment, and their drinking water should be kept clean during artificial breeding. Therefore, some turtle friends keep turtles and turtles together, drink dirty water, and don't get sick. Water accumulation is even more terrible. If they don't change the water for a long time, the bacterial infection will not be preserved. According to the observation of domestication experiment, after washing the turtle pond, the old water is released and the new water is replenished, and the yellow-edged turtle climbs into the turtle pond to drink water 1.
3. Eating habits
Yellow-edged turtles mainly feed on animals. In the wild, it mainly likes to eat earthworms, slugs, centipedes, scarabs, snails, geckos, butterfly larvae, and various vegetables and fruits. It is cultivated artificially, while the yellow-edged turtle prefers to eat live bait, such as earthworms, breadworms and plants, such as tomatoes, bananas and apples.
4. Artificial domestication
Yellow-edged turtles are gentle and easy to approach people. Generally, after 20 to 30 days of domestication, the fear of people can be basically eliminated, and some turtles can take the initiative to approach the breeders for food. When the yellow-edged turtle is domesticated, the bottom of the breeding pond should be flat, with dry land and drinking pool, and the soil pool is better to keep the breeding pond clean. Generally, after two weeks of domestication, the wild yellow-edged turtle can take the initiative to feed on the bait table, which requires us to spend more time with the turtle at ordinary times and communicate with the turtle in mind and eyes. If the turtle calls softly, give it a name and a fixed signal, so as to form a good conditioned reflex and better interact with people. Sometimes, turtles and people also have a spiritual language. Train more, just like training a dog, talk to her more and communicate with her more. There is a saying on the Internet that a turtle can dance and Yuan can walk with others, because Huang Yuan is very human, which is the greatest charm of Huang Yuan.
5. Reproductive habits
The mating seasons of yellow-edged turtles are generally May-June and 9- 10. The female turtle can effectively mate 1 time and maintain the fertilization ability 1 ~ 2 years. During the mating season, males are active and aggressive, and often fight with each other. Mature males keep courting females, crawling around or following them closely, or biting the front edge of the female's carapace with their mouths, swinging back and forth, or crawling in front of the female and shaking their heads to urge the female to mate in estrus. When the male turtle climbs onto the female turtle's back, his hind legs touch the ground and his tail is close to the female turtle's tail, the mating device is inserted into the female turtle's reproductive hole.
The spawning period of female turtles is from June to August. Generally, each female turtle lays 2-6 eggs every year, mostly at night. When laying eggs, first dig a bunker with a depth of 5- 10 cm with her hind legs. After giving birth, cover the eggs with sand scraping on the hind legs and flatten them with the abdomen. Sometimes, several turtles lay eggs on the surface of the pool or in the water. The egg is rectangular, generally weighing 1 1 ~ 18g, 42 ~ 47mm long and 20 ~ 24mm wide. The hatching substrate of eggs can be mixed with sand, loess or sandy soil. The suitable incubation temperature is 27 ~ 32℃ and the relative humidity is 75% ~ 80%.
6. The meaning of artificial edge and wild.
Most of the artificial fate comes from farms. While blindly pursuing economic value, it ignores the sustainable development of soft-shelled turtles. Heating to increase their weight is the ultimate goal of the farm. As a result, turtles can't hibernate for a long time, fat accumulates, and their weight goes up, but their sexual desire gradually declines and they lose their reproductive ability. This is also the reason why wild turtles are used in the market. Because most artificial things are useless, some turtle friends blindly pursue perfection, but ignore whether their fate is a "father-in-law" wild turtle. Although they have old injuries, they have strong sexual desire and reproductive ability. Wild predestination has been in the wild for so many years that it is impossible to mate countless times without trace. So we can see the difference between wild fate and artificial fate at a glance, but there are also fine products in the wild, but there are few. Therefore, when the real player pursues the product image of the tortoise, it depends on whether your tortoise is useful or not.
7. How to make the back of the edge grow taller and the color redder?
The back of the edge is related to the following factors: nutrition, sunshine and exercise. Eat foods that imitate calcium, such as shrimp. And urban farmers can buy shrimp skin in the supermarket. Frozen live shrimp is better, followed by earthworms that grow meat rapidly and bread worms that compete for food. Add tomatoes and bananas. Especially during the spawning period, nutrition should be strengthened. Sunlight, photosynthesis, the best nutrition lies in absorption, especially the growth of turtle shells. Adequate sunshine can make the turtle's back calcify better and make the turtle's back higher. Exercise, as the saying goes, life lies in exercise, and exercise lies in persistence. If you want to make your turtle's back grow taller and rounder, besides strengthening nutrition, it is more important to exercise and shape. More and bigger venues are conducive to the exercise of turtle's back. If we just let turtles eat and sleep in a narrow space in Shaanxi, the consequences can be imagined, let alone full of energy, and some even lose their lives. Even the best turtles depend on our care and breeding. It is very important to raise special turtles the day after tomorrow, just like a baby is just born. Some people become athletes, some become bodybuilding champions, and some become geniuses. The key lies in nurture.
Second, the wintering plan
It is suggested that the seedlings in the first year should not hibernate until the turtles grow up in the second year, which is safer. 97% of wild seedlings can survive the winter safely. Because the price of yellow border is high, we don't want to take the risk of 1%. In addition, seedling hibernation is of little significance.
But how can the tortoise survive the winter safely in our hands?
Option 1: directly put the fry into a small sorting box, put vermiculite (or sand instead) inside, and cover with leaves. Vermiculite (sand) should be wet. Spread it by hand. You can also hibernate indoors and pile 30 cm thick sand in a corner of the house or on one side of the pool. When the temperature drops to a certain extent, the yellow-edged turtle dives into the sand to hibernate. When hibernating, you can cover the surface of the sand pile with a layer of straw or leaves to avoid the low temperature of the sand pile and hibernate indoors, that is, keep the surrounding environment quiet and pay attention to rat prevention. When hibernating, if the temperature rises and the temperature is high, you can see that the yellow-edged turtle is awake. Suitable for families with heating, but turtles hibernate at risk.
Option 2: You can use a square glass cylinder and a sorting box, and put a heating rod in the cylinder.
They are sold in this store. Generally, the price is around 10 yuan to 20 yuan, and 50 watts is enough. Put a layer of water in it, and the water can pass through the heating rod. The heating rod can be placed at the bottom of the cylinder (sold in our shop), horizontally, not vertically, and then a stone or a sinking wood can be placed on it. It is best to sink wood (which is sold in this shop), so that the seedlings can drink water and have a platform to rest. It is also possible to put a brick without stones and heavy wood. It's best to feed Xiao Yuan more meat and put some earthworms and breadworms. This method is simple and easy, and the soft-shelled turtle grows rapidly, reaching 1 in half a year. (recommended)
Option 3: put a pet heating pad in the sorting box, light it with a lamp, put a dish of water in it, and feed it with a small dish. The investment is relatively large, and it costs tens of dollars to organize the box and the heating pad, which is easy to dry and troublesome to operate. Always pay attention to whether the turtle seedlings are short of water. The water tray should be firm and low, and the turtle should drink water easily. But cleaning is more difficult, so it is best to put moss and moss in it to purify the environment.
Option 4: incubator, with large investment, suitable for multilateral. When irradiated with UVB lamp, the heating pad, thermometer and hygrometer are 1 respectively (generally, 1 pad in one). Pay attention to the humidity of the turtle box. Turtle is easy to dehydrate, but the investment is large. Not easy to operate.
Other turtles operate in this way. Any turtle should be responsible for hibernation. Don't think that everything will be safe after hibernation. Check regularly and solve problems in time. Otherwise, there will be consequences!