Reptile & Amphibian Forums

What Box Turtle species makes the healthiesy/best pets?
Are the prices very different for CB juvies?

Thank you,

Brian

If you can provide an outdoor pen, then you should select a North American species that is suited to your climate for the best results. If you cannot provide an outdoor pen (for the juvenile, a hatchling can be kept indoors for it's first year) then do not bother with the North American species, as they will not thrive and generally just fade away indoors.

There are several species of Asian box turtle which can do well indoors.

I plan to provide an outdoor pen.
I should have been more clear. I am looking
for info on North American Terrapene sp.

Thank you,

Brian

Can you give me a description of your climate, what the area you would pen in is like (lots of shade? big trees? what plants? ) and every detail you can think of. The more appropriate your pen is to the environment suited for the species you pick, the more active and enjoyable your turtle will be.

For instance, I live in zone 7a, close to the border with 7b. My climate has relatively mild winters (central north carolina). I have a LOT of water in the form of rain. I am planting over my area to provide more shade (the only thing I'm lacking naturally) and layers of shade, and my eastern box turtles are very active and breed readily. My three-toeds would like a slightly hotter climate with an even milder winter, but they do pretty well, though there is a noticeable difference in their activity level versus the easterns. I would not try to keep desert boxies, though I really think they are interesting and I'd love to, because I couldn't really provide them with the drier climate they should have.

I've also learned a LOT about gardening and carpentry and such from keeping nice pens. My wife is becoming quite a gardener and now helps me a lot in deciding what to plant and where, which is great for having really nice attractive pens that we can enjoy for their visual effect as well as the inhabitants.

Nathan, sorry to hear of your experiences with box turtles indoors.... but I know people who have had them indoors for years with no problems. You should give such as an opinion, not an ultimatum.

Asian species are similar.... why do they do so much better indoors than N.A. boxies? I'd be curious to know.

>>If you can provide an outdoor pen, then you should select a North American species that is suited to your climate for the best results. If you cannot provide an outdoor pen (for the juvenile, a hatchling can be kept indoors for it's first year) then do not bother with the North American species, as they will not thrive and generally just fade away indoors.
>>
>>There are several species of Asian box turtle which can do well indoors.
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Greg
http://greg978.tripod.com/

Few people have had box turtles indoors as long as I have had them and tried both in and out of doors. The few people who have been successful have had elaborate and expensive and very large setups that had misting and lighting systems set up rivaling zoo exhibits. Even they had only been going less than five years. Others who have had less elaborate setups have watched health and breeding slip away before reaching five years, much as I have. Boxies can exist for a long time in substandard conditions, even years, but they are tuned to their environment.

Keep box turtles outdoors for a few years. Get to know them. Watch how they react in every kind of weather and time of day and all the combinations there-in. This is an animal that is directed through a multitude of activities by it's environment, something that doesn't happen in an indoor setup. Outside they react to dry days, dewy mornings, cool days, warm days, warm rainy days, cold rainy days, frosts, droughts, storms, everything differently. Until we know how it is that all their different activities matter in their habits and how that is that it creates a healthy turtle that lives over a hundred years, we won't know what to mimic for such success indoors. Most people looking for a pet are also not going to buy a $35 box turtle and then spend a thousand or more setting up a zoo exhibit with misting and dawn/noon/dusk lighting systems. How is a creature that is most active in morning and evening going to act when it's light cycle has only on and off?

I think my experience over the last more than twenty years has led me to the point there what I've learned is no longer merely opinion, but valuable knowledge gained.