Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was just wondering if you all put your babies outside?
I think I would just be way too nervous...they are so tiny..yikes!
I do plan on building the large pen in the 3 raised garden beds,
but thats for later when they are much much bigger.
But I was thinking of putting them out in a small protected
area for a few hours everyday. What do you guys do with your
babies? Thanks~Nikki
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Man is the only animal that blushes ~ or NEEDS to!

We Survive together ~ or not at all.

Mine will be going outside in April when chances of frost are completely over and the nights are warm. It's just not feasible to keep them inside that the rate they're growing. I swear everytime I look that a few of them are bigger than they were the day before! I'm guessing you have a bit more time till spring reaches there.

Last year I did not feel comfortable leaving them outside for the summer because the heat here can get very extreme and I saw some people being advised on here as to how how fast the heat can kill them.
Their original half built pen is pretty much scrapped. I've decided to rebuild in March/early April. It will have a lids, probably with heavy wire not hailcloth and locks, more to keep out humans than animals. I'm undecided whether I should put wire mesh or barb wire atop the 4' tall fencing around my other pen, again to keep out humans.

If you're worried about weather such as heavy rains maybe you should make sure the pen isn't in a low spot that may flood.

Thanks, that is another reason the raised beds by the front door
would make a better spot...they are also about 90% protected
by the roof from rain.

How old, or big are your turtles?
One of mine is just over an inch and the other is a bit
bigger than a quarter, so I just worry they are too little.
How quick do they grow, I can't seem to find any information
on growth rate.
Thanks again~Nikki
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Man is the only animal that blushes ~ or NEEDS to!

We Survive together ~ or not at all.

I'm not sure how I should age the babies, they were an over winter nest so I have no idea what the exact hatch date was. They came up May 8th and I've been caring for them since.
If you scroll down the page there's a thread I started called "Baby box turtle growth question" at the time the largest was 2 and 5/8th", it's a tad bit bigger now. The smallest has also grown slightly.

I suspect the largest one will be near 3" by the time they all go outside. Growth is dependant of food, more protein can increase the growth, however it really needs to be balanced out and plenty of calcium provided. I realized today why the largest is bigger than the others, when it hears me move around anything in the cage it pops out looking for a meal!

At the time the babies came up I had been caring for the parents for a little over 3 years, unfortunately the female was stolen and the pen trashed shortly after, I suspect by a couple of kids. I was never able to get ahold of them or their parents. The male is hibernating outside in his 8'x12'x4'H pen.
Lesson I learned there was never underestimate that people may come into your fenced in backyard.

OK thanks, thats what I was looking for just a base of how big they would be by next year. I just like to plan ahead on their
indoor/outdoor homes.
I am sooo sorry to hear someone took your turtle
That is just awful!
For that reason, and the wildlife, I never left Mazie out
over night, I just couldn't do it. I will bring these
in at night too.
Again, so sorry, I just can't believe someone would do that
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Man is the only animal that blushes ~ or NEEDS to!

We Survive together ~ or not at all.

I'm sure they'd be perfectly fine outside with a sturdy lid and a deep enough foundation/base that nothing could dig in or out.
Aside from that incident nothing bothered my turtles, not even the cats that would jump in the pen to drink out of the water dishes.

"How quick do they grow, I can't seem to find any information
on growth rate."

There wouldn't be universally reliable information available on growth rate because there is a tremendous amount of variability.

Husbandry considerations, frequency of feeding, quanitity of food, quality of food, and more, all come into play.

I was putting mine outside at a week old, then stopped because it got to cold, they will go back out once it warms up again, nothing is as good as the sun.

I agree about the sun, and thats why I do want to keep them
outside part of the time. I just think I would be a nervous
wreck if I just left them out there. OK I KNOW I would be.
Even with screens I would still worry about them and something
getting them YIKES!
How big are yours now? Thanks~Nikki
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Man is the only animal that blushes ~ or NEEDS to!

We Survive together ~ or not at all.

"I was just wondering if you all put your babies outside? "

Yes, I do, during the warmer months. They go into a small covered (with mesh) pen for several hours per day. The pen has all of the features I have in the adult's pen, just on a smaller scale: water, cover, shade, sun, etc.

When I first got the boxies that were babies I built 2 large wooden boxes (2-1/2' X 4')with astro turf on the floor and at one end I had a large pile of peat moss (no additives) for them to bury under. Oh, and I should add that the moss was under a wooden cubby so they could just go under that and sit, or bury in the moss. The other end of the box had two oblong trays (about 1" deep) which I kept fresh water in for them. I put a hinged lid on the boxes with chicken wire so nothing could get to the babies. During the spring and summer month they were kept outside on the patio where they got the early morning sun shining into the box and also the really late afternoon sun. Of course they had lots of shade with the cubby at the other end.

At present I have another baby boxie that I am keeping in a long "under the bed" type plastic storage box. It has peat moss on the bottom with 1/2 of the box being planted with grass and the other only the moss. I keep the box covered with "window screen mesh" held onto the box with a large piece of elastic. (I would bring Squirt into the garage at night for added security for him.) I kept this turtle this way because at the time I got him I had already put the larger boxies into the wooden boxes for the winter. This summer I will move Squirt into one of the wooden boxes (since the other boxies are now outdoors permanently in their pen) and then he will graduate to the pen with the others when he is bigger. Right now he is about 2 inches long. Anyway.....that is how I keep (or kept) my small turtles. .........9boxies

I plan to have this baby outside but holy cow we are going to use some really strict security measures especially after what I witnessed yesterday afternoon.
The sharpshinned hawks don't hang around here in summer but the roadrunners are here year round, roadrunners love to grab up tiny little reptiles. I found a baby horned lizard in my bird bath last spring.. dead with a hole punched in it.
Quick story, I was sitting on my living room floor playing with the dog yesterday, I was sitting about 4-5 feet from the front door, when I noticed a lot of birds out in the front yard eating. Suddenly they all scattered like crazy & I saw a dove slam into the glass front screendoor which knocked it out cold. As I was rising from the floor to go help it a sharpshinned hawk swooped down, grabbed the unconscious dove without breaking it's stride & both were GONE right off my front porch right at the front door!!
Freaked me out big time so I've been thinking about when the baby goes outside in spring, I'm going to have to be sure there is plenty of cover & hides for it along with that heavy gate on top.
Wild Kingdom right outside the front door wow!
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PHRatz

Thank you all for your help and ideas.
WOW PH, thats horrible! poor little critters.
I too have a wild kingdom here. We have coons and fox daily
and these huge hawks, one took my neighbors cat last year..yikes!
(plus many many other animals )
SO am thinking these little guys are only going to be out for
about 6 hours a day, and like you say, very protected.
Thanks again~Nikki
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Man is the only animal that blushes ~ or NEEDS to!

We Survive together ~ or not at all.

>>Thank you all for your help and ideas.
>>WOW PH, thats horrible! poor little critters.
>>I too have a wild kingdom here. We have coons and fox daily
>>and these huge hawks, one took my neighbors cat last year..yikes!

WOW that's scary about the cat. I've wondered about large hawks because I saw a red-tailed hawk not too far from where we live.. it was probably about 2 miles from our house. They are huge & I've worried about what would happen if one of those hawks decided to come hunting around here.
Sat. night at dusk I saw 2 huge birds fly away from our property.. I couldn't tell what they were but they were big. Hawks going to roost for the night or owls coming out to hunt? It scares me because the weenie dog is a mini.
We are really going to have to make that top tight for this baby box!!
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PHRatz

Gosh, I certainly don't blame you there for wanting a secure cover over your baby. I have never seen that type of bird around my yard......but we do have a lot of grackels. Oh, and white wing dove by the hundreds every evening and morning perch on the electric and phone wires up and down our alley. I used to feed them a couple of years back, but when there got to be so many I just quit putting seed out for the birds and only put out my sugar water for the hummers. Oops, I got off track.
Anyway......yes, I can see where you would need a secure cover for your baby. I used to worry about all of my boxies when I would put them out to wander in the backyard before I got the pen built. Though it doesn't have a cover over it I don't worry too much about them now because they are so much bigger now and I have never seen any bird peck at them. I have seen the birds get into the pen and eat leftover food after the turtles have moved away from it, and get drinks out of their water containers though.

I sometimes worry about that though because of bird diseases. Do you suppose the turtles could get sick from the birds landing in the pen and eating and drinking? I do try and change the water out for my turtles a couple or more times a day though. Any thoughts on this......anyone? I might add that I have a shelter over the water dishes to kind of prevent some of the larger birds from getting into the water though. I tried to put it just high enough that the turtles can get under it to get into the water but the larger birds can't. The sparrows on the other hand can fit quite easily under it. Oh, just to explain that a bit......I took some wire racks and attached wooden dowels on the 4 corners and then drove the dowels into the ground. I put a small board on top to provide some shade for the water to keep it from getting hot in the summer. There is just enough space for me to lift the containers out to change out the water and sometimes scrub them if need be. Oh, and the containers are recessed into the ground flush with the grass around them. That helps to keep the dirt out of the water. .......9boxies

9boxies I worry about bird diseases too. Yes they could spread parasites but giardia is usually the one they would spread in water but it's so dry here.. I don't think giardia would flourish in this region. I know vets here do not see that in mammals that live here.
I know 2 vets who've said this & I can say it too.. you'd be hard put to find a wild box turtle carrying parasites in this hot dry region. The 2 vets I discussed this with & I have never found a wild box that tested positive for a parasite.
The sun is so hot it tends to kill those that live in the soil out in the wild.
In captivity though.. it could happen. I just test them at least once a year to make sure they're ok.. so far never found a parasite.

We have grackles too & they can be very aggressive.. actually it could've been a grackle that killed the baby horned lizard & left it in the birdbath.. they like to wash their food.
Dove though seem to be the target of most of the predators, they're too slow to get out of the way.
I don't worry a whole lot about the adult boxies being uncovered either because I've watched cats & other predators look at the turtles & walk away. They don't seem to be interested in an adult.
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PHRatz