Kids brought home a box turtle...

[alohareptiles]

We got a new addition to the family...It's a Box Turtle...Any quick tips on what to do to take care of this addition (i.e. cage temps, food, etc.)? At least they didn't bring home a dog or cat...

[DutchHerp]

I'm sorry, I don't know anything about their care, but I DO know that they're not amphibians

[alohareptiles]

DANG!!! I knew it was a long day at work...

Mods, can you please move this to the correct place??? Thank you Dutch for pointing out my knuckleheadedness and sorry...

[DutchHerp]

ha no worries!

[Beardedragon]

Go put it back if its wild.

[alohareptiles]

It's not wild...A friend was moving and needed to pass it on to a good home...Right now I have it in a 20 gallon tank, ceramic light and UV light...I was thinking about adding a UTH...

[SatanicIntention]

Put it in a TUB or something with opaque sides. Turtles and torts don't do well with clear sides as they will rub their noses raw. They can't differentiate between glass and not being able to get through. A tank will just dehydrate them and kill it slowly.

I use a black cement mixing tub from Home Depot, but mine are babies and are unable to get out. You can get bigger tubs with areas for water (waterland tubs made specifically for turtles/torts).

They don't need much UVB(5.0 bulb at most), and temps only need to get to about 85 on the warm side and mid 70s on the cool side. Get a digital thermometer to measure the cool and warm sides.

Get moist Bed A Beast and mix it with cypress mulch or leave it as it. They need moist areas to go or you'll have shell deformation.

They are meat-eaters with a little veggie here and there. I offer mine(I have 3 CBB baby box turtles I got last year) Mazuri land turtle food soaked in water, red wigglers, chicken hearts/liver, waxworms, mealworms(not as often). Stick him in a 6-12qt tub with some paper towels and about an inch or less of lukewarm water. This gets him hydrated and wanting to defecate. Let them sit in the water for about 30 minutes to an hour to get their fill, then put them back in their home.

And please, get him out of the tank. They do not do well in glass.

[alohareptiles]

Thank you for that update...I will jump on that ASAP...Sooo different than boa's and BP's...