Boxturtle enclosure, critiques please

[leigti]

I would appreciate some critiques and comments to improve my new box turtle indoor enclosure.
Here it is, I stood a little to one side to show what was under the UV light. This is for an adult female three toed Boxturtle. The inside dimensions are 20 inches tall 36 inches wide and 52 inches long. It is 150 gallon stock tank.The substrate is 6 to 8 inches deep, 50% coconut Coir And 50% orchid bark. There is a big pile of Spagnolo Moss and leaves in the top right corner and some leaves sprinkled around including a few in the two hides.The hides are located in the middle right-hand side and the bottom left-hand side, they are too little Black plastic trash cans from the dollar store measuring 11 inches long and about 7 inches tall and 9 inches wide I likes them because they were deep but not so deep I couldn't reach in and grab her out if I needed to.
The lighting is 48 inch T5 HO 5.0. The heat lamps are 11 inch domes with 65 W floodlight.
The basking spots very a little bit but are averaging at 93°, warm and 80° and cool and 71°. My UV radians go everywhere from .2 to 2.4 depending on where I measure with my UV index meter. @Tom what do you think of those numbers, should I add more substrate to get the turtle closer to the light? I may not be measuring exactly right. Any suggestions on any of this would be wonderful. Thank you.

 

[russian/sulcata/tortoise]

i don't own box turtles, but your enclosure just looks awesome!!!

 

[leigti]

i don't own box turtles, but your enclosure just looks awesome!!!

Thank you, It is kind of fun to make a new enclosure. but sometimes it's like it's never quite done, always tweaking it.

 

[russian/sulcata/tortoise]

Thank you, It is kind of fun to make a new enclosure. but sometimes it's like it's never quite done, always tweaking it.

lol i know what you mean! I'm always adding new grasses and hides to my torts cages.

 

[Maro2Bear]

Looks great!

 

[leigti]

Looks great!

Thanks! I may have to make it a partially close chamber to keep the heat in this winter, we'll see.

 

[Ciri]

Your enclosure looks very nice. I have two 3 toed box turtles and in my experience they prefer hides which have more weight to them. I have used terra-cotta pots cut in half vertically and then placed on their side. I also use wooden hide logs sold for this purpose. I like the terra-cotta because it doesn't mold like the wood can.
Also, my reptile veterinarian has told me not to use coconut Coir as substrate. I don't remember the reason that's a problem, that it may be that he doesn't want them to get it mixed into their food at all. I don't know anything about the orchid bark, but he's usually suggested that I use sterilized potting soil (or bake some soil until it's sterilized). It's important that the soil has no bat guano, perlite, or chemicals.

 

[leigti]

Hello Ciri, Nice to talk to another box turtle owner.I do have a wooden log hide that I may put in there. I know that coconut caoir is highly recommended on this site, they say that it will pass on through if the tortoise or turtle eats any of it. Outdoors I use Pete Moss and organic garden soil, I always make sure there's no pesticides etc. in it. I haven't had any trouble with it so far. I try to surround the food area and water with rocks to help some of the dirt come off. I am new to tortoises and even newer to the box turtles , I would love to see some pictures of your boxturtles.

 

[johnsonnboswell]

I like to mix coconut coir with my organic home grown compost for my box turtles' indoor habitats. The combination works better for us than either one alone. Outdoors, pure compost works wonderfully. I also pile up dead leaves, indoors and out. It gets ground in and enriches the substrate, provides cover & feeds the worms.

 

[leigti]

I like to mix coconut coir with my organic home grown compost for my box turtles' indoor habitats. The combination works better for us than either one alone. Outdoors, pure compost works wonderfully. I also pile up dead leaves, indoors and out. It gets ground in and enriches the substrate, provides cover & feeds the worms.

I am making compost this year, I will put some in her outdoor enclosure next year and maybe mix a little in the indoor one also.do you put worms, crickets, pill bugs etc. in your indoor enclosure?

 

[johnsonnboswell]

I am making compost this year, I will put some in her outdoor enclosure next year and maybe mix a little in the indoor one also.do you put worms, crickets, pill bugs etc. in your indoor enclosure?

Yes, I feed live food indoors. I try to "seed" the habitat, too. It's nice to find worms & slugs under the water dish in deepest winter.

 

[leigti]

Yes, I feed live food indoors. I try to "seed" the habitat, too. It's nice to find worms & slugs under the water dish in deepest winter.

I have put worms and crickets in there, in her food bowl but also around the enclosure. I don't know where to get slugs. I know there are some around here when it rains, but I can't see them. And I'm not sure if any of them are poisonous. if they're not poisonous I'm sure I can find somebody to help me go slug hunting

 

[johnsonnboswell]

Turn over rocks & rotting wood to find slugs. I have a stone path way that's good for finding them. I've heard that others lay out a damp piece of cardboard. My neighbor who hates slugs finds them in her well watered mulched garden beds. They also like lettuce.

 

[thea lester]

One fabulous and amazing facet of box-turtle biology is that they are virtually immune to naturally occurring toxins. They can and will eat most fungus, poisonous caterpillars and are frequently found dwelling amidst poison ivy (at least here in the south-east U.S.). However, that being said, that's in their native environment and outdoors.
Sophia and I (see avatar) grew up outside Seattle. She was probably 20 when I was 7 and sadly, most likely at that time (29 yrs ago) she had been caught in the wild and sold up north.Blah Blah...
Your enclosure looks absolutely lovely. But does it have glass sides? If so, and you just cannot resist having a window into her world, at least make sure and cover over the glass on three of the sides. She won't be obsessively driven to claw through the glass as much and she will theoretically be better reconciled to the confines of her environment.
You have designed a lovely environment. If you have access to these, I find pansies make lovely floral and edible additions in fall and spring. For safety sake, I'd recommend organically raised plants but I am a worrywart.
Excellent work!
PS I fed my turtles any and all slugs from the PNW no matter how big n gooey and they loved em all. They also love snails and the calcium etc from the snail's shell benefits the turtle's metabolism. They'll try to eat the Big snails, but smaller ones are better. like dime sized

 

[leigti]

One fabulous and amazing facet of box-turtle biology is that they are virtually immune to naturally occurring toxins. They can and will eat most fungus, poisonous caterpillars and are frequently found dwelling amidst poison ivy (at least here in the south-east U.S.). However, that being said, that's in their native environment and outdoors.
Sophia and I (see avatar) grew up outside Seattle. She was probably 20 when I was 7 and sadly, most likely at that time (29 yrs ago) she had been caught in the wild and sold up north.Blah Blah...
Your enclosure looks absolutely lovely. But does it have glass sides? If so, and you just cannot resist having a window into her world, at least make sure and cover over the glass on three of the sides. She won't be obsessively driven to claw through the glass as much and she will theoretically be better reconciled to the confines of her environment.
You have designed a lovely environment. If you have access to these, I find pansies make lovely floral and edible additions in fall and spring. For safety sake, I'd recommend organically raised plants but I am a worrywart.
Excellent work!
PS I fed my turtles any and all slugs from the PNW no matter how big n gooey and they loved em all. They also love snails and the calcium etc from the snail's shell benefits the turtle's metabolism. They'll try to eat the Big snails, but smaller ones are better. like dime sized

Thanks. The enclosure is a stock tank, black walls I will try to find some slugs when it starts raining, I live on the dry side of the mountains. I don't know if we have snails here but I will look for them also. Can I feed her aquatics nails from the pet store aquarium section? we have a local pet store that is not a Petco or Petsmart.

 

[leigti]

Oh, she is outside in the spring and summer. The weather turned here so as of yesterday she is inside until spring.

 

[lisa127]

Love your enclosure. What size stock tank is that? I've been wanting to look into stock tanks for my boxie instead of this wooden enclosure.

 

[leigti]

Love your enclosure. What size stock tank is that? I've been wanting to look into stock tanks for my boxie instead of this wooden enclosure.

It is 150 gallons, Tuff brand I think.it is kind of a beast of a thing but it works well.

 

[lisa127]

Thanks. I'd like to get one for my blue tongued skink as well I think.

 

[thea lester]

I love the South Eastern side! Brrr in winter though eh? If they aren't saltwater snails I would imagine they"re ok? Your turtle is so lucky to have you. Also, there are small indoor worm bins available that seemed pretty easy to replicate at the time I was looking into that. They weren't terribly expensive, but I remember thinking I could set one up very easily. It involved an aerated plastic bucket with drainage and some other aeration and the worm food is cardboard and some specific salad scraps.