Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Goodmorning all! I'm sorry to keep bothering you all about hibernating boxies......but I have one more question for you. As I have mentioned before, this is the first year I will be letting the boxies hibernate outside in their pen and something has gotten me to worrying. When I hibernated the boxies in the cages in the garage I didn't worry about them piling on top of each other as they were in moss and could just wriggle out from under each other anytime they wanted. But......I have only noticed 5 areas where I think the boxies are dug under out in their pen. My question is.....will all the boxies be ok if say....some are on top of the others in the same spot? What if one decides it wants out of the situation ....can it get around the boxie on top since they are dug under in the soil instead of moss?

I have thought that perhaps I should go out today and try to find all 9 of them and try to get all of them to go to separate areas of the pen to dig down in. As of yet I have no leaves on the ground to mix in with the soil in different areas of the pen, though I do have some moss mixed into the dirt. I am planning on piling leaves on top of where the turtles dig under as soon as the leaves fall off the trees though. Hmm.....I never thought I would want my leaves to hurry up and fall.....but I do now!

If any of you could give me a tad bit of advice I would really appreciate it. Oh, let me add that some of the boxies are not buried in the areas where I have loosened the soil for them, they are in areas where they have just dug down beside something where the soil was hard. What should I do in that case?

Well, any advice you all could give me would be greatly appreciated. I do hope all of you have a wonderful week-end! Take care...............9boxies

It sounds like you're unintentionally making things more complicated for yourself than need be.
Instead of leaving anything to chance, why not dig one or two deep, roomy hibernacula for your turtles? By creating something bigger and deeper than they will probably need, you'd be giving them the opportunity to make adjustments for themselves. It is not unusual for wild turtles to congregate in hibernacula, especially if they are using the abandoned burrow of another animal.
This is how I've done things here in central VA for several years, and, so far, 'overcrowding' has not been an issue. 3'L x4'W x2'D (dimensions include sloped sides)sleeps 10 comfortably.

Thanks for the quick response StephF. I will give it a try. I do have a large square in the center of the pen that I keep quite loose and is enclosed with cender blocks and has an opening on each side. They like to walk through that area. It has a sheet of plywood on top for cover. A couple are in there, so I suppose I could get the rest and try to get them to go in there also. But how do I get them to decide that that is where they want to dig down?? Do I just put them all in that particular spot and hope they dig there or what? I do have a fairly large pen, so there is lots of room for them to wander and dig.

I know I must sound really stupid, and I probably am as I have only had the boxies for a few years. I guess I tend to worry way too much about things....9boxies

"But how do I get them to decide that that is where they want to dig down?? Do I just put them all in that particular spot and hope they dig there or what?"

Don't give them a choice. Eliminate inadequate cover.
Pick a cool day, when they are hunkered down and just want to stay covered: move them from the less desirable spot to the designated spot. You'll see that instinct will kick in and they will just start to burrow under whatever looks like good cover.

Every fall, after I've prepped the hibernacula here, I do a general cleanup of the pen, trimming back vegetation, pulling weeds, and making sure the only leaf piles are over the hibernacula: basically, I eliminate other cover.
This way, if any turtle should wander out, it will be easy for me to find and put back in where it belongs.
Keep in mind that, at this time of year (here at least) turtles are still somewhat active, so they won't necessarily stay under cover just yet. That usually doesn't happen until next month sometime.