Young box turtles became active and alert as soon as they hatched, and
remained so until low temperatures induced quiescence. If sand or soil
was available, hatchlings soon burrowed into it and became inactive.
Covering containers with damp cotton also induced inactivity; the
hatchlings usually made no attempt to burrow through the confining
layer. Desire to feed varied in hatchlings of the same brood and
seemed not to be correlated with retraction of the yolk sac or
retention of the caruncle. Some hatchlings actively pursued mealworms;
on subsequent feedings they learned to associate my presence with food
and eagerly took mealworms from forceps or from my hand. Meat,
vegetables, and most other motionless but edible objects were ignored
by hatchlings but some individuals learned to eat meat after several
forced feedings. Hatchlings that regularly took food in the first
month of life ordinarily grew faster than hatchlings that did not eat.
Many of the hatchlings in the laboratory showed no areas of new
epidermal growth on the shell in the time between hatching and first
(induced) hibernation.