New to Turtle’s

[One]

Essentially I am looking for some turtle guidance here. I have a turtle that to my best knowledge is a “woodchip” turtle, (his names Nemo). It was a family members for many years but has recently become my responsibility.

I like the little guy, I think they’re pretty cool but I don’t have much knowledge. I read through the beginners mistakes and took notes. Some things I want to improve on and could use guidance for: I want to build a nice enclosure, are there certain types of wood I should use, can I use a seem sealer on the joints (worried about toxicity), and are there any good ways to seal the wood that will be the floor and up the walls slightly in order to avoid moisture rotting the wood. If anyone has a build schematic that would be awesome

I posted a picture of what I’m looking to build. I threw together a quick temporary set up. It’s actually a big fish aquarium, see the image. It’s 4 ft x 1 ft x 2 ft. I know it’s not of adequate width and the depth makes it hard to clean. I read online that turtles get stresses by people passing so I covered the sides in paper to obstruct his view. Anyways hence why I want to build a better solution. I was thinking dimensions of 4 ft x 20” to 24” x 12”. If that’s not adequate please correct me.

I also posted a picture of the turtle, if anyone knows the exact species and care tips/ what I can do to help with his shell that would be very appreciated.

Thank you ahead of time!

 

[LasTortugasNinja]

Biggest issues with aquariums I've seen with turtles is most have a VERY strong flight instinct, and that causes them to slam into glass. If you've ever walked into a store's glass door, you know it don't feel good. Now imagine you don't have the ability to understand what happened. That's why glass aquariums aren't recommended. I personally recommend even for water turtles like Sliders to block the basking area with paper, just because I've seen an adult red slider launch herself off a floating basking log into a breeder tank wall after being spooked. That caused damage to both the turtle and the aquarium. Slowly reaching down and picking them up seems to be less stressful than anything moving fast at them.

As for enclosures, as always, go with the biggest you can. Use a tarp that covers the wood to control moisture. Pond tarps are pricy, but are close to bulletproof and will withstand the long hooked claws of turtles. A thick garden waste bag will work well too. For substrate, coco coir and clean leaf litter works great.

 

[Yvonne G]

This is one of the Central American wood turtle species. I've never kept them, and am not well versed with how to care for them. Here's a care sheet I took off the web:

Tortoise Trust Web - Care and breeding of Central American Wood Turtles

Tortoise Trust Web - A site dedicated to the conservation and captive care of Chelonia

www.tortoisetrust.org

 

[LasTortugasNinja]

This is one of the Central American wood turtle species. I've never kept them, and am not well versed with how to care for them. Here's a care sheet I took off the web:

Tortoise Trust Web - Care and breeding of Central American Wood Turtles

Tortoise Trust Web - A site dedicated to the conservation and captive care of Chelonia

www.tortoisetrust.org

they are very similar to our box turtles. In the wilds, they root around leaf litter looking for invertebrates and soft undergrowth leaves.

 

[One]

This is one of the Central American wood turtle species. I've never kept them, and am not well versed with how to care for them. Here's a care sheet I took off the web:

Tortoise Trust Web - Care and breeding of Central American Wood Turtles

Tortoise Trust Web - A site dedicated to the conservation and captive care of Chelonia

www.tortoisetrust.org

This is awesome, thank you!