help with making hatchling eastern box enclosure

[shellfreak]

i posted tghis thread in turtle specific area, but thought i would get a better response if i put it here as well. i have 13 eastern box turtle eggs incubating and i want to be well prepared for when they hatch. i have a 40 gallon tank that i will be keeping them in over winter, until i can put them back outside. does anyone have advice on how i should make it? substrate, depth of substrate, what you used for water source, types of live plants, lighting requirments? any advice and pictures would be great. thank you in advance.

 

[kimber_lee_314]

I keep mine in rubbermade tubs with coco coir - about four inches deep so they can dig in. I use a small plant saucer dug in so they can easily get in and out on their own. I don't use any plants - just some clay pots cut in half and logs to climb on and hide under. I keep the tub slightly tipped so that one side stays wetter and the other side drier. I get them outside once a week - so I don't use extra lighting. Hope that was helpful!

 

[terryo]

I keep mine in planted vivariums. I found many years ago that these hold the humidity much better. I put about 4 inches of substrate...soil, peat moss, mixed with some cypruss mulch, and on top of all that I add moss around the water dish and lots of leaf litter. I don't use hides for the hatchlings...I found that they will dig under where they want to anyway. I put lots of moss at one end of the viv. under a large plant. I wet it and squeeze it out and fluff it up. In the Fall I usually save a big bag of leaves, but if I don't have any, I'll cut a few branches off some trees and just let the leaves dry out, and then pull them off and crunch them up. On top I have a screen cover with a hole at one end which I put a heat emitter through. On the other end I put a long tube 5.0 UVB light. Low light, high humidity, plenty of plants, and a place to dig under... Go to this site and look at his pictures. It is my favorite site for hatchling enclosures....one of the best IMHO.

http://turtle_tails.tripod.com/raisingbabyturtles/tour1.htm

He has plenty of pictures and I've copied lots of his vivariums.

This is a set up I have now with nothing in it yet.....not for a boxie though. That's just a log in the cornor that I hollowed out and filled with moss...They will usually just go dig under in there.

 

[shellfreak]

wow. great pictures. thanks for the advice. how long will you keep them in there for before you move them outside?

 

[terryo]

This summer I just put some two year olds and some three year olds outside. I'll probably take in the two year olds. The other's will stay out to hibernate. I was thinking of leaving them all out, but I keep looking at the two year olds, and they're still so small.

 

[Tom]

terryo, I love turtletails.com. I spent two hours reading everything on there today. What a great website. Thanks for sharing that with us.

 

[terryo]

The owner of that site's name is Tom, and he's very nice and willing to answer any questions you have. Great site.

 

[Cre8ruckas]

nice site i just check it out