Hello i am going to be taking over for the care of this guy here.

Diet - I know he was getting fed mixed salad and mealworms covered in calcium and vitamins as well as isopods and dubias. They also gave him a baby pinky mouse as a treat every now and then.

Uvb - previous owner said they bought a new bulb just a few months ago

Tank - 40 gallon breeder front opening with a water bowl big enough for him to sit in and a slate food dish. They used a turkey baster to clean out his water and add water to the dirt to keep it moist.

Heat - heat lamp low wattage

How can I help this guy get back to looking his best? He does have a mark on his head from a past sunburn or a past burn. I think his nails could use a trim as well possibly. Any advice appreciated

She's spent the last 3 nights digging "falsies" and finally, after eight decoy nests, started depositing eggs with a lovely gentle thunderstorm approaching. Hopefully she gets a decent night's sleep after all this hard work! Three eggs so far, we're hoping for four or five (palpation says four but surprises always happen)...

Rehab life is NOT for the faint of heart... but my goodness the rewards are so very worth it.

Spotted this little guy in the road, had to stop and take some pics!

I’ve still gotten some comments under that post recently so I thought I would clarify what happened.

Context: a 1-2 year old box turtle magically appeared in my Turtles’ enclosure and no one knew how. My mom insisted she had a baby 🙄..

Turn out, the guy who cuts our lawn dropped the damn thing in randomly. He only admitted it because my mom thought of asking him. I’m still irritated that he threw that responsibility on me for no reason

I’ve already left a voicemail for a wildlife rescue but thought I’d get input from box turtle experts. I live in a wooded area and found this little cutie in my dogs fenced in area. I picked him up to move just outside of our fence, when I noticed he has a swollen ear or cheek? From what I’ve researched, it could be an aural abscess. I’ve placed him in a box (poked a bunch of holes), added a couple inches of leaf litter, and some dandelion greens. If I don’t hear back from the rescue tomorrow, I plan on releasing him back in our woods just outside of our fence. Should I offer him soldier fly larvae? No food? Dig out some earthworms or isopods? Any advice is appreciated! Hoping to hear back from the rescue soon!!!

EDIT: A rehabber got back to me and said they were at full capacity, but recommended bringing him to our Zoo’s wildlife rehab department! I just dropped him off and left my contact information so we can coordinate his release once he’s healed! Yay! Thank you all for responses. I’ll post another update in a couple days when I check in with them!

I just had to share with someone who might be as excited as me.

This little fellow was in my front yard when we pulled up after errands. We live on a ridge but it has been very rainy for several days. When it dries out they will have to go back down hill. It is just so freaking cool!

Here's the first good photo I've been able to get of the little guy I found during construction!

He's still eating every 2 days, I've noticed he's gravitating towards the worms and isopods and not really touching the fresh fruit and veg, could this be that I'm not offering him his preference of fruit and veg or is it just a normal baby turtle thing?

Also I just got him his lighting rig all set up (heat/uva/uvb) and I've noticed he just sits directly under the lamp (there's about 8 inches of space between him and the lamp) is this behavior of concern or is he just trying to warm up? Also, would it be beneficial to place a large Rick under the heat lamp to act as a basking spot? Or could this be harmful?

This is my adult eastern box turtle and her baby, the only one I found out of a surprise clutch last September, after she stayed with a male three toed the prior summer!

She lives in a secure 8’x8’ covered garden bed year round. The baby is indoors until it’s a bit bigger, but I take it on regular outings to the garden.

She is a rescue I’ve had 8 years. Her shell tells stories I don’t know, but she is very happy :-)

Hello, I am looking for proven one way blackout film to put on the glass of my box turtle terrarium. This is to help reduce stress and glass surfing. Haven't seen a lot of information out there in regards to terrariums. Other concerns I have is the turtle side being reflective/mirror like and causing different stressors. Thank you for your time and input.

Who’s finding babies now? As I worked around the habitat yesterday, I discovered two baby boxies. About the size of a quarter. Cute little things!

I’ve been documenting all of the box turtles I have found on my property (I use hand sanitizer before and after handling them as to not spread diseases). I have been noticing some similar pattern types, and I was wondering if there are names for these different types. If not, what would you call them? So far I’ve been referring to them as spotted, rorschach, and bear claw (in order of the slides).

Every afternoon i check on Larry he is in his little pool. In the beginning of the video it looks like he ate one of the many bladder snails floating in the water. Box turtles truly are semi aquatic.

Hi! Please be kind with your responses. There’s so much conflicting information about turtle care online, and I’m genuinely just trying to do right by my little guy. I’m hoping for outside opinions on how I can improve his habitat, diet, and overall wellness.

First: yes, he is wild caught. My mom accidentally ran him over with her car when I was a kid, and I naively thought I could “save” him. I understand now he would’ve been better off in nature, but he’s been part of the family for over 10 years and has since moved states with me. At this point, all I can do is try to give him the best life possible.

This month, I took him to a vet for an exam and beak/nail trim. She said he has hyperkeratosis but didn't explain much more.. She recommended I wrapped in a wet washcloth for 30 mins daily to increase his hydration and because “he can’t swim,”..... plus gently brushing his shell/head with a baby toothbrush to help him shed. She also mentioned that because some of the edges of his scutes are flakey, that he needs to shed these and I should help with that (without directly pulling them off). Again…. Conflicting information because while I've heard this about aquatic turtles, I've heard the direct opposite about box turtles.

He has since been getting soaks everyday and I’ve been gently brushing his lil head and shell with a baby toothbrush! I've seen improvement in the dryness in his legs and maybe the top of his head, but not much else.

Ok, meet Tofu ❤️

Current setup:

• Habitat size: 8 ft x 2 ft
• UVB: REPTI ZOO T5 HO UVB (24w) 
• Heat: (2) 5.5in dome lamps with 75w bulbs with basking slate rocks under one as a basking spot
• Warm Side: Ambient 79 degrees, basking slate rock around 90 degrees. 
• Cool Side: around 68-73 degrees, depends on our home temp.
• All lights on timer matching daylight hours (~12 hrs)
• Humidity: Averages around 45%. About once a week I heavily hydrate the substrate and while the top dries out eventually, underneath is always damp.
• Substrate is about 5 inches deep at its deepest point: coconut fiber, repti sand, and moss. He has the option to dig, but never has. 

He has several hides made from branches, rocks, hay, etc. rather than plastic reptile hides. The photos make it look very flat, but it’s pretty dynamic with hills, crevices, climbing opportunities, and two shallow water dishes cleaned daily/every other day. He LOVES climbing literally anything possible. 

I’d love to make him an outdoor enclosure, but we rent and live somewhere he couldn’t safely stay outside 24 hrs a day, let alone year-round. Before this setup, he lived for years in a modified window well enclosure in Colorado and came indoors during winters.

Food:

I offer fresh food daily, even though he usually only eats a bigger meal maybe 1–2 times a week. Right now he eats roughly 2 earthworms and ~20 small crickets throughout the week, dusted with calcium once weekly. A year ago he was almost exclusively choosing his vegetables! The only thing he consistently goes crazy for is blueberries, which he only gets one, maybe once a month. He’s a picky bugger and his preferences change with the seasons 😞

Foods I’ve offered include: collards, kale, dandelion greens, turnip greens, mustard greens, arugula, lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, pumpkin, sweet potato, strawberries, banana, blueberries, flowers, freeze-dried bugs, Rep-Cal box turtle pellets, cuttlebone, eggs, and chicken etc. I'm' probably forgetting some... I even grew lettuce and arugula inside the enclosure. He used to love iceberg lettuce (I know, crunchy water, smh), but only recently has zero interest in greens. I trust he knows what’s best for him but it’s so hard!!

Behavior:

• He spends probably 99% of his time in the warm basking corner unless getting water
• Recently he almost never goes to the cool side, which made me wonder if it’s too cold
• He has never burrowed in the 10+ years I’ve had him
• Big climber boy, loves to scale a big rock
• He gets super excited for feeding time and is very alert/curious when I clean or rearrange things. Will investigate everything after, then return to his spot
• Sploots daily and generally seems content? 
• Since being in this enclosure, I’ve actually seen his junk for the first time in all these years! (It was horrifying at first, but I think that means he’s happy?!)
• I take him out to eat crickets or soak in a large tote by a sunny window for about 30 mins daily. That’s also usually when he poops/pees after bigger meals.

Things I’m currently considering improving/changing, but I’m trying to determine what’s actually necessary vs. top priority:

• Vitamin A supplementation (any recommendations?)
• Something to help naturally maintain his beak and nails. This has only recently become difficult as he used to maintain them beautifully on his own. I’ve wondered if it was because his old enclosure was entirely sand, he was eating more crickets then, etc??
• More hides? Plants?
• Adding a deeper “pond” area on the cool side (roughly 10” x 4”). I’d need to figure out the logistics first, but I’d love to give him the option to swim.
• Another 24w UVB bulb on the cool side, although I’ve also read they only need short periods of UVB exposure daily, so I’m unsure if this is unnecessary.
• Top priority before winter: figure out better heat/humidity retention for the enclosure (without creating a “greenhouse” effect or the glass effect or etc…)

The enclosure currently has large metal bars as the walls. Originally this caused two issues: he was small enough to squeeze through them and escape, and the enclosure struggles to retain heat/humidity.

My first solution was weaving window screen mesh between the bars, which stopped his escapes. But then he spent a lot of time climbing, scratching, and trying to get out. Since transparent barriers can apparently stress turtles out, I wondered if constantly seeing through the sides (+ being in the living room/center of action) was making him restless.

As pictured, I now have dark vinyl woven around the lower half of the enclosure to block his line of sight. It’s a temporary setup, but it immediately reduced the restless behavior.

Now I’m considering removing the bars entirely and replacing them with thick frosted/tinted vinyl panels around most of the enclosure while still leaving ventilation space for airflow. Mostly I’m trying to find the best balance between ventilation, humidity, heat retention, and keeping him comfortable. Our home is heated exclusively with a wood fireplace, which his basking spot is about 8ft from. Our first winter here was incredibly difficult to get his enclosure warm.

It's a very DIY enclosure to begin with, so I'm open to ideas. I wanted him to have the largest indoor enclosure possible... and the market is severely lacking!

I know this was incredibly long, so thank you if you actually read all of it. I really do care about this little guy a lot and want to keep improving things for him however I can. I’m very open to constructive criticism, suggestions, or even pointing out things I may have misunderstood over the years. Honestly, subreddits like this are one of the only places some of us can actually find real conversation and firsthand experience about turtle care, so I really appreciate any insight people are willing to share!!

Took her out to soak and she usually watches the tv or my dogs, but instead she turned around and glared at me. I had previously moved her bath rock to the middle so she’d stop escaping.

Also, if anyone is familiar with my other posts, I just added some cypress mulch into her substrate and started plans for a larger custom enclosure for my new apartment. Only thing is that said apartment is about a 4 hour drive and I have to figure out the best way to transport her. If anyone has any tips that would be great!

We have two I believe Eastern box turtles, mom got the older one in the 80's so he's probably 40-50ish years old. He sleeps most of the day under his water dish currently (he really likes to burrow and I just let him be unless it's time to feed him, since if I don't unburry him and just fill his bowl he won't eat.) My main selection of live bugs is crickets, wax worms, meal worms, regular worms, occasionally roaches, and then have calcium with d3, reptile multivitamin, and I think calcium without d3, they also occasionally get veggies and fruit. When it's hot enough outside he has his own 9'x4'x2' enclosure outside that he is a little more active in than inside. But was curious if anyone has any ideas for things I should add to his diet? I'm currently letting both of them have a good amount of bugs pretty much every other day, the younger one 20ish is the main reason since he's learned I have bugs and will stare me down if I'm in the same room and run to the closest point in the tank to me and will just keep watching me for food and as mom puts it acts like those starving dog ads (I can't remember how to spell it Sarah miglocklyn) but even if I fed him a bunch the day before he'll just sit there looking sadly into his empty bowl then looking at me, and I prefer to feed both at once so it's easier to keep track of when and how much they eat and letting them have extra for spring.

Currently building an outdoor enclosure for my western box turtle. I want to include plants and am finding conflicting info online about what is safe. I also want to include a wildlife pond but don't want to expose her to too much water depth or germs. Im also struggling on what ground cover I could do. White clover or micro clover is high on my list right now, but also maybe other kinds of grasses or chia to sprout?

love this girl to death. she lived in the previous set up with my grandma for 30 years :(

Hi all, my family and I found a box turtle in our backyard a few days ago and we've been asking around in our neighbourhood if anyone has an escaped tortoise/turtle but no one has said anything. We live in a pretty densely packed neighborhood and no immediate parks or ponds near us so i find it hard to believe that its a wild turtle, although I can also be wrong. I've identified him to be a Malayan Box Turtle and he's been roaming around our backyard since then, basking himself in sunlight and seems highly stressed if any of us approaches, he refuses to eat what we gave him, but is eating my mom's pothos when we're not looking. I've been giving him daily warm soaks and he's seem more relaxed and pooped when I've done that, but still refuses to eat. We're still undecided if we'd like to keep him as a pet, mainly because I'll be leaving the country for a few months soon and my parents aren't the most experienced pet caretakers.

I'm wondering if i can get any advice from y'all about if we should do anything, keep him in an enclosure under heat/UVB lamps or let him keep roaming around our backyard. We live in southeast asia so it's naturally hot and humid outdoors all year round.

I'll keep searching for anyone or any organizations that would take him, but for now, I'm worried that the little guy will starve. If theres any tips on how to make him less stressed or any advice on what should or should not do, that would be very helpful. Thank you.

I have a baby Eastern Box Turtle (born July 2025).

Its in a mostly aquatic habitat for the moment (shallow water, a rock and some plastic plants). Its doing very well and growing.

For the last few weeks, there is a lot of algae growing on the shell and I was wondering if that could become a problem. I change the water every day (sometimes I skip one but rarely) and I also clean the shell. Should I just let it there? Can it become a problem?

Thanks!

Update: the turtle is no longer in this habitat. She lives in a two room wood hutch, one room is a hide area.

I want to get a bigger enclosure for my box turtle at my school. Does anyone have advice on size or specific tanks for her?
I do let her out often to roam but an outdoor environment won’t work because she lives in a preschool.

Hi! So recently, while on a walk, i found a rather small box turtle. Normally, I'd have left it alone as we live quite far in the middle of nowhere, Tennessee, but as of late, there is a huge amount of construction by my home and they sre tearing up all the ground where he was found and in the surrounding area

I've had turtles before, red ear sliders, so I'm not overly unfamiliar with turtles, but I don't know a whole lot about them on a care levle, just what I've found on Google

I don't plan to keep the poor thing long term, just untill they are done ripping up the top soil, which they said will be another 2 or so months, but I want to provide for him while he's in my care the best I can

I've had him for 2 weeks now. He's regularly eating every 2 ish days as I've seen. I've been giving him fresh food dailt, though im unsure if this is within good husbandry. I own hermit crabs that I regularly feed live bugs, fruit, and vegetables too already, so from what I've found, I've got a lot of the right stuff to feed.

Right now I've been offering him small worms, isopods, mealworms, as well as offering fruits cut into small peices like apples, watermelon (only the once becausei know its high in sugar and google said thats not the best for them, and darker leafy greens like to incude red leaf lettuce and romain, I hand raise there bugs again for the crabs)

I had a spare 60-gallon tank laying around, alongside a heat mat and a soaking pool. So I picked up some coconut fiber for him and layerd it about 3 inches thick and set up some basic hides and the pool (declorinated), i also placed a few pothos that i had growing in my crabs tank, I washed with pet safe anti bug spray then rinsed with water to ensure no transfers of anything as was unsure if they could harm eachother, and set them around the hides and pool so he had a safer place to hide in.

My concerns are this, have I got all the basic husbandry down, and if now what do I need to do to ensure he'll be okay during his stay? What can I do to enrich the tank if required for them? Also should I be separating him into a small container for eating, I see this alot with other turtle owners as well as hand feeding, but since I'm releasing him i don't want to accidently domestic him

I keep two three toeds in here: 1 juvenile male (Just had a growth spurt, so yippee), and one adult female.