An update and some questions

[kbroadway2]

Hi! My boxie, Pickle, is 10 months old and is 2.5 inches long and 2 inches wide. His hinge seems pretty well developed because the other day I accidentally scared him and he closed up inside his shell. He is happily eating red wiggles every other day and is offered strawberries, mushrooms, spring mix greens and sometimes kale, grapes, and tomatoes and sometimes cherries and blueberries.

He is still living in a large under bed storage container with coconut fiber bedding, two clay pots as hides and a plant saucer for his water bowl. He has a mvb instead of a reptisun tube light because I can't figure out how to attach one to his enclosure. The mvb is about 18 inches from his enclosure and the temp on the warm side stays around 85 and 70 to 75 on the cool side. His humidity is staying at 80% with a plexiglass lid covering most of the enclosure.

My questions are: 1) when should I start spacing out his protein feedings or should I keep feeding him worms every other day like I am now? He is eating quite a bit of his veggies now. 2) are red wigglers enough of a protein source to use as his main food? He really loves them. I dust them with calcium powder with d3 every third feeding. I can order some pill bugs but they're expensive. I can't get them out of my yard because we spray pesticides for ants. 3) should I let him hibernate this winter? Or would it be ok to keep him from doing it? He will be 1 year old on October 13. 4) he will have an outdoor playpen next summer but I don't want him outside in the winter because I'm afraid it might get too cold. I was thinking of wintering him inside in a large enclosure in my garage.

 

[johnsonnboswell]

We can't comment on winter temperature without knowing roughly where you live.

Add as much variety to the diet as possible. There is a care sheet here, and Tess Cook's excellent book is available on amazon; Tess had a free online book available, too.

 

[Eric Phillips]

Hello and hello to Pickle! I would vary the diet as much as you can. As for the Pill Bugs, all you have to do is find a couple adult pill bugs to culture from under a rock somewhere where you don't spray. Get yourself a 12 quart rubbermaid snap top storage container(drill a few small holes), put some organic soil or peat moss, some leaf litter, and a few potato peels in it. Won't take long they reproduce rather quickly then you can add a few into the enclosure to do the same for Pickle to hunt. I do like Calci-Worms or Silk worms for the high calcium, you can get them at your local pet store.

 

[kbroadway2]

I live in Georgia. I know it's illegal to own box turtles but mine is captive bred. I know boxies hibernate outside here naturally but if I build an above ground enclosure next summer to house him in I am still worried about it freezing down further than he can dig. And I don't know much about hibernation either. Do I still offer food and water? Should I dig him up every couple of weeks to check on him or just let him do his thing?

I've bought Phoenix worms before and he loves them. But the large ones are only about half an inch long and he eats five or six at a time. I also have the problem of them turning into flies quickly or dying in the fridge

 

[Angel Carrion]

Never heard of Phoenix worms.
Hibernation info: http://boxturtlesite.info/dvmhib.html
Tess Cook's online book version: http://boxturtlesite.info/bxbook.html

 

[kbroadway2]

Phoenix worms are soldier fly larvae. They are fairly cheap. I just ordered 100 pill bugs from niles biological. I'm going to put a few of them in his enclosure for him to hunt, cultivate some, and use the rest for feeding. He really gobbles up pill bugs.

Here are a few pictures!

 

[kbroadway2]

One more photo of pickle about to chow down on some worms

 

[johnsonnboswell]

You don't have to hibernate him. A good mvb lamp will keep him up. You can head start him indoors over the winter and revisit the hibernation issue in a year or two or more when he's been living outdoors for the summers.

I'd be leery of keeping him awake in the garage; but an insulated box with temperature control would work there for hibernation.

Read Tess Cook's book. You can get a free version online, or buy the paperback from amazon. Great info in it.

 

[kbroadway2]

I'm going to be making a bigger enclosure soon. I know he hasn't outgrown his current enclosure but bigger is better, right? I'm going to get two 50 gallon Rubbermaid tubs and cut out the sides and clamp them together to make one large container. I saw the idea in the tortoise enclosure section. I'll be able to put the lid on half to hold the humidity in and also get a reptifogger to use. And I may switch to top soil and peat moss because it'll be cheaper than buying enough coconut fiber to fill that big of an enclosure. I have 3 bricks but I'd probably need four or five more to make it deep enough. I can just use what I have left for my hermit crabs and get peat moss for Pickle.

Right now I put his veggies in a rough clam shell that I found at the beach and sterilized. I'm going to switch to a flat paving stone when I upgrade his enclosure. I can also enlarge his water too. What can I use to disinfect his stuff? Right now I'm using a very diluted water/vinegar mixture. It seems to do the job. After I soak it in the vinegar solution I soak it in dechorinized water to make sure all the vinegar is gone. When I upgrade his enclosure can I just mix the uneaten veggies in the soil for the pill bugs to eat? Or do I still need to be getting it out of the enclosure? I don't want little flies and extra bugs getting in there. I've had him 10 months but I'm still learning. Just when I think I know enough to take care of him I end up with more questions. I read Tess's book and it was really helpful. I'm thinking I may buy a kiddie pool on clearance if I can find one to use for the rest of the warm weather season here to keep him outside during the day. If he is outside all day and only coming in at night and when it rains do I still need to use the mvb? Or just use it this winter when he is inside 24/7? Right now he gets outside for a couple of hours a few times a week and I have the mvb on a 12 hour timer from 630 am to 630 pm.

 

[johnsonnboswell]

You don't have to feed him in a separate container. That's for aquatics that dirty the water after they eat.

My favorite substrate for box turtles is the organic compost made in my garden, mixed with coconut coir. For outdoors I use only compost. Indoors or out, provide a leaf pile. It offers escaped bugs a place to live & something to eat, as well as a hide for the turtle. As it breaks down it enriches the substrate/soil.

Your turtle may enjoy the rain. Mine do. Provide a shelter so he can choose. Drainage is critical in an outdoor habitat. A kiddy pool can become dangerous in a heavy rain.

You can make a cinderblock enclosure or use a raised garden bed. Cap the corners to prevent climbing.

You may want to also join Tess' box turtle list.