Hi! Please help box turtle in Bay Area

[Ucsfbum]

Hi, everyone!
I found a box turtle few days ago or I should say this little guy or gal found me because it was knocking on my door. I am still having hard time identify this box turtle because it has chracteristics of both desert box turtle and Florida box turtle. I am preparing an outdoor enclosure for it but I am not sure what I should do to prepare my turtle for the winter in Bay Area outdoor. East bay is considered warm summer mediterranean climate. Temperature does dip down to 37 degree at night in January. Is it possible to keep my turtle strictly outdoor? How should I prepare my turtle for winter? I am glad to find this community online and thanks in advance.

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Hello, and a very warm welcome to Tortoise Forum.
If you could post a photo it would allow members here to identify the exact species/ subspecies. .
I'm not a keeper of Boxies, so don't really know the answer to your question, but until someone more knowledgeable come along have a look at :
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/box-turtle-outdoors-habitat.134235/
and http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/hibernating-a-box-turtle.145240/
which may help a bit.

 

[ColleenT]

When we were making our turtle pen, we made sure to include and area that was 3 ft deep by 3 ft wide on each sidw. We mixed the old dirt with new organic soil and some peat moss. not a lot of peat. mixed it well. this way the ground was soft enough for the turtles to go down a few feet. I placed a den over top of the hibernaculum, and i had a successful hibernation this past winter. and i live in Eastern PA. Our winters get majorly cold.

here is the link from when we built our enclosure. a bunch of pics. http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/can-you-guess-what-this-is.139158/

 

[Ucsfbum]

Thank you.