Glad to see he came through alright Jeff. Are box turtles native to Iowa? We also had a brutally cold winter this year. It wasn't a sustained cold but we set all kinds of records twice this past winter. Also I know for a fact that several of my turtles come from the eastern plains of NM (around Clovis) where they typically have very cold sustained winters.

I have always left my box turtles to brumate on their own and have not lost one yet. I would encourage you to try it this next winter. I fill their pen with leaves wet it down, mat it down, and call it good. I just leave all of that in their pen and it turns to compost which in turn makes for lots of worms and bugs that they regularly forage upon. BTW I'm at an elevation of right at a mile (5281). Our night time lows during winter probably average 22 degrees with lots of teens and some single digits lows thrown in. We rarely get below zero, although.....this past winter we did on several occasions. We don't get near the snow though that you probably do.

Just my 2 cents.
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Vichris
"The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane"- Marcus Aurelius

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