Box turtle habitat help, please.

[kitten333]

So, I read that tortoise terrariums are good for box turtles. My patents got me a box turtle spur of the moment and I am obviously not really prepared. I have a set up for him temporarily and he seems fine. I just was wondering if anyone knew a nice cheap place to buy tortoise terrariums online? Thank you, as always, Henry and I appreciate it very much.

 

[ChameleonRave]

Are you sure it's a Box turtle? Join TurtleForum.com to learn more about the care.

As for an enclosure get a tortoise pen for outside or inside whichever you choose and a paint pan for it to drink and wade into.

can you post picture to get more of an idea of what you are keeping it in?

 

[millerman6401]

dont use an expensive turtle pen. we had a baby gate/play pen that was like 12 foot long and u could bend it. so we bent it into a rectangle and it works perfectly!

not my picture btw!!

 

[ChameleonRave]

I have seen many made from supplies used at Home Depot or Lowes. they can make some great enclosures.

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

Box turtles are native to Tennessee so the best habitat would be an outdoor pen to take full advantage of natural sunlight and weather conditions. There are a lot of options, and fencing in a small area of your yard that gets good sunlight as well as shade it can be very inexpensive. Here are some ideas for you. Personally I am going to do something like the 3rd picture next time I move. Right now my boxies have their own side yard and they love it and thrive. My oldest one has been with me for 20 years now. She even survived a raccoon biting off her foot. She's my little three legged three toe box turtle! Moral of the story? Make sure it's predator proof. Especially if it's a young one!! Box turtles are masters of escape. I watched one scale a vertical 3' chicken wire fence and plop out the other side. Make sure the wall is smooth, at least twice as tall as the turtle is long and there is nothing against it they could use to get leverage to climb out. There are lots of options! Remember they need lots of UVB and a period of hibernation in the winter. Outdoors would be best imo.

 

[millerman6401]

my russian spends almost all summer outside here in OH, we have her fenced in and the top is covered with chicken wire, she seems to like it.

 

[kinyonga]

Ferret...there are lots of different species of box turtles...we need to know what species it is.

Also most of them are good diggers and could disappear if there is no floor in the cage. You are definitely right about making the cage predator proof and about them being able to scale things!

I've kept several species of box turtles for years. I made the pens from large kids' water tables by adding melamine shelving vertically around the outside of the table to stop them from getting out. The table already had a drainage hole, so I created a "pond" around the hole by drilling a hole in a large container and sealing it to the bottom of the water table so that it could drain. I put a tap on the drain below the water table so that the water could be let out of the "pond" to clean it.

There are small water tables shown in these photos just to give you an idea of what they are...
http://www.hotelfun4kids.com/hotelproducts/playareas/sandwater.htm

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

Ferret...there are lots of different species of box turtles...we need to know what species it is.

Good point...I assumed it was a three toed or ornate since those are commonly available, and I saw Easterns are the state reptile of Tennessee, but it would be a good idea to know what species it actually is.

Can you post a pic?

 

[kitten333]

Thank you for the advice, everyone. My laptop is messed up at the moment, but as soon as I get it fixed I will post pics. Tis going to sound silly, but his temporary home is a kids wading pool, when he is outside. I bring him inside at night, because there are a lot of animals that like to come out at night and I am worried he could get hurt. When he is inside he is in a largish aquarium. (obviously not filled with water. Lol)

 

[kinyonga]

The wading pool is a good idea and it won't hurt him to be in a glass tank in the house for now either. Is it a boy or girl? What species is it?

 

[kitten333]

Tis a boy. His name I Henry. I always said that I would name a turtle bowser e on Mario, but when I got him, he looked more like a Henry to me. Lol. He is an adult Eastern box turtle, I am pretty sure. He was a suprized and my parents only knew he was a box turtle. Lol

 

[kinyonga]

Does it look something like this....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_box_turtle
http://www.bio.davidson.edu/people/midorcas/research/Contribute/box turtle/boxinfo.htm

The care in this site seems to be pretty good...
http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/cs-easternboxie.htm

(Point of interest....Eastern box turtles can breed with 3 toeds.)

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

Where did your parents get this turtle? A lot of states don't allow you to keep Easterns anymore, and since Easterns are your state reptile it may have protection. You might want to check into that. And if they found it near a road it should really be let go where you found it since their numbers are really dwindling in the wild. Just some things to think about...

 

[fluxlizard]

Where did your parents get this turtle? A lot of states don't allow you to keep Easterns anymore, and since Easterns are your state reptile it may have protection. You might want to check into that. And if they found it near a road it should really be let go where you found it since their numbers are really dwindling in the wild. Just some things to think about...

I live in the middle of box turtle country too. We are still allowed to keep them in my state (up to 5 may be kept which means someone like me is deterred from breeding, plus they are not allowed to be sold so you have to go out and catch one if you want one, you can't buy one from a breeder, but you can go out and kill dozens of most turtles per day in my state for food for crissakes).

We still have lots of box turtles here where I live though- you see them dead and alive on the roads all the time here.

What really irritates me- Urban sprawl and paved roads are really the killers when it comes to these turtles. Not a kid here and there picking one up for a pet. But it's easy to point the finger at the occasional kid.

If I drive an hour or so I can go back to my hometown. Semi-boggy fields where I used to find lots of box turtles as a kid are now k-mart, wal-mart, a mall, a mega-theater, a lowes, shopping centers of all sorts, a huge post office, etc, etc, etc. Their habitat for several miles has been paved over.

Makes me angry when politicians OK that kind of thing on the one hand and say a kid cannot pick up a turtle for a pet on the other...

Save a turtle or two from a kid and destroy their whole habitat so we can have walmart and a mall and home-depot and a best buy...

Sorry- I know this is off topic.

To the OP- get some metal or pvc roofing and make a pen outside- dig down a couple of feet and sink the roofing to make a little fence that goes a foot or two above and below ground so your turtle cannot climb or dig out. There is a lot of information available on the internet about how to construct an outdoor pen and how to take care of your turtle. You really should google it. If you do decide to release your turtle he needs to go exactly back to where you found him- they do not do well if released into unfamiliar territory.

 

[kitten333]

They got him at petsmart in the next state over, tis only about an hour drive, so, we are there a lot. He is not illegal, well, he would be. The law says that if he is 5-6 inches in shell size, he is alright to keep. He is just a tiny bit over 5 inches.