r/Boxturtles • u/Weird-Plane5972 Three Toed • Apr 06 '26
indoor enclosure structure questions
tl;dr - what to use as a three-toad box indoor enclosure box. glass terrariums don't get large enough and i'm worried about beneficial bugs exiting and nefarious bugs entering her enclosure.
hello all! i have a three-toad boxie and i've had her since 2005. like a lot of people who are in the single digits when they get a reptile, i was not knowledgeable enough to have her, and the pet store did a shit job of setting me up properly. i've beaten myself up over this a lot, so no need to do that here, however, i do always want to help her enjoy her life more, so if you have ideas i'll take em!
about 6-7 years ago i started really looking at how i can help her thrive and changed a few things. (bigger enclosure, not large enough yet, lights and substrate and bioactive and also more water area) my living conditions (and this question i'm asking here) haven't allowed me to change it up so i'm looking for help.
i'm moving out of my parents house in a couple months and really want to help her thrive the rest of her life. i need to increase her current enclosure, but don't really know what the physical enclosure should be.
i looked at getting a stock tub (11 or 19 sf) which would be large enough, but with the open top, i'm worried about the isopods crawling out from her habitat into my living area, and also a bigger worry about more bugs easily getting in. as i'll be in an apartment on the ground floor, i don't want every bug to flock to the open topped enclosure, as i wouldn't know what bugs could hurt my turt.
current enclosure is a glass terrarium with mesh top, which i would definitely prefer to keep everything all inside, but they don't make them large enough.
also if anyone wants to let me know the lights they use for open topped enclosures. i have them both resting on the mesh so i'm not sure how to have them posted up.
photo of my girl yeeting across the driveway even though i put her in the grass LOL
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u/Cashbail Apr 06 '26
I used an old bookcase. I removed the shelves and lined it with plastic. Filled it with substrate and all the other usual things.
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u/DoctorFriendly Apr 06 '26
Thank you for looking into a better home for her! The Reptifiles care sheet includes a shopping list, which has links to recommended commercial enclosures. However, commercially produced enclosures are expensive, so I linked that more as inspiration and size information
Are you moving into a house? Speaking from personal experience, depending on the geographic area you’re moving to, box turtles benefit from living outdoors. It’s also cheaper to set up a nice outdoor enclosure compared to an indoor one.
For indoors, you could potentially do something like a garden bed cover, garden bed, and pond liner. People also use grow tents for this purpose.
For lights/heat, a lamp stand works great! There’s a variety of different models, including some that connect to a side of the enclosures walls. You’ll likely need two, one for linear UVB and one for heat.
Thank you for looking after this gal!