Tips for the Care & Feeding of Box Turtles

We have a multitude of pets. Box turtles are one species that I highly recommend if you are looking for one that is low maintenance but at the same time enjoyable. My daughter inherited her turtles from her 1^st grade teacher. Below should be some helpful tips for what type of space they should have and what they should eat and how often.

These turtles mostly require dry land and like to have water to relax in and to drink. You can make a cage for them but be sure it has a bottom so they don't burrow down to go under your fence. We purchased a coy pond for our turtles. We drilled holes in the bottom so when it rained, the water would drain. Then we added soil. Be sure to avoid the kind with pesticides in it. We want the turtles to be happy! If you can, make the dirt at least 4" deep. They like to burrow down in the dirt to cool off and hide. You can buy little food bowls if you want for them to eat out of. We also have a large dog bowl that we fill with fresh water. To keep the turtles happy, their water should be refreshed daily or every other day at the least. They like to get in the water to cool of drink. The cage should be in a place where they have plenty of sun but not 100% sun. Our cage is placed on the west side of our house. This way they get the sun in the morning and still have heat during the day but not direct sun. The turtles need heat so they can digest their food.

Box turtles are very docile pets. Ours turtles don't bite. I haven't had any other ones that came from outside our original 5, but if you get them from the wild, be careful because they might possibly bite. If you can get two, do so. They like to have company. If you get a male and female, they will mate and could produce eggs. Without trying to have them reproduce, we found an egg and separated it from the other turtles. It survived and hatched. It was the cutest thing and so much smaller than the grown turtles.

Box turtles do not have to be fed every day. Every other day is sufficient. They eat things from lettuce (anything but iceberg because of no nutritional value), strawberries, corn, carrots, peas, worms and even dry dog food. Their favorite food is the worms. You can get them from the ground or purchase them at the store. You can get them from a bait camp or some place where they sell fishing gear. Usually they'll have a container of worms. When you feed them anything except worms, be sure it's cut into bite size pieces. You don't want them to choke. Because they need warmth to digest their food, it's best to feed them in the afternoon after they've had heat for a while. If you feed them in the morning, they'll eat the food anyway and have a difficult time digesting it. I made a planter box with seeds for green leafy lettuce and grew some of that. After it gets to be a decent size, you pinch off the leave and they love it! The leaves will grow back. If you do this, you won't be going to the store for lettuce because you'll always have fresh lettuce at home.

These cute animals hibernate during the winter. They'll burrow down underneath the dirt then sleep for a few months. Keep an eye on them in the beginning especially if your winters are like ours in Texas. If it gets cold, they'll burrow and you think they're hibernating but then find them roaming around later. If you don't see them for a few days, that's ok but at least for the first couple of weeks of hibernation be sure to watch for them. If you assume they're down for the winter and they're not, they won't have the food they need. If they've been down for a few weeks, you can assume they're done until it warms up some more. The main lesson here is just to make sure you monitor them and don't forget about them.

I hope this article has been helpful in answering some questions about box turtles that you might have already had and provided good information to help you decide if this is the right pet for you.