Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My dad and I spent the last weekend working on building an enclosure for our turtle. We began by digging a 4x9 foot hole, 2 ft. deep. We then lined the bottom with flat rocks, leaving gaps in between that are not large enough for the turtle to get through, but will still allow insects and such through.
We then began lining the sides with bricks, leaving gaps in between the bricks that are small enough that she can not dig through them. We are in the process of laying down rows of brick and filling in the hole. We plan on placing plastic/vinyl lattice around the enclosure about 2 feet high, then finding a way to have an overhang so she can not excape.
We originally planned on lining the hole with chicken wire (mesh wire), but it will lose integrity after a few years of being underground. We'd have to redig the hole every few years to replace it, which was something we prefer not to do.
I plan on covering about 1/5 of the enclosure with some sort of roofing for shade, using a paint roller tray as a bath, and having a food dish to place her food in. Hopefully the change to being outside will urge her to eat more vegetation.
Most of this was in response to her shell pyramidding, so we're trying to alleviate all issues. More sunlight, better diet, more calcium, more room to move around, etc.

It rained this weekend, and we found a fully grown box turtle out in our yard, so I grabbed it and brought it in the house to see how the turtles reacted to each other. I was quite surprised. Our turtle is a female and the one I found outside was a female as well. I figured they'd see each other and run. The full grown turtle we found outside explored a little bit, and our turtle... head tucked in about halfway, slowly chased after the other turtle... It was nifty. I let the other turtle back out where we found her after about 5 minutes...

We've never owned a reptile before, so it's a new thing for us... We're trying our best to get it right..

Quick question, though... Will this outdoor enclosure be sufficient for all 4 seasons provided we give her places to burrow, hide, etc... I am in North Central WV. Temperatures during the summer are typically around 50-60 at night, 70-90 during the day... during the winter it can get below zero, but rarely does.. during the days it is usually in the 30s or 40s. She is in her native enviroment, as we found the eggs in our yard...

Also, will they instinctually avoid foods that are harmful to them? We've been feeding her mainly snails, worms, and grubs.. but we are wanting to try other things, but I don't want to feed her something that is harmful to her by accident.

The enclosure sounds great, I like the stone floor and bricks for long term, it's giving me some ideas for a future project. I bet it was a lot of hard work, but will certainly pay off in the years to come. Not to make you worry or rain on your parade because it sounds like you had some fun and interesting observations from their interaction, but I hope the wild box didn't give your captive any parasites, you might want to re-think that if you find one in the future. Wilds can tend to carry parasites due to their food and water sources. Such a short exposure, I wouldn't worry about it, but in the future, why take any chances with the one you love so much, right?

They didn't actually come in contact, so I doubt there was any transmission of, well, anything. I will keep that in mind though.

I figured that with a lifespan of 50 years, replacing chickenwire underground every few years would be ridiculous. My dad and I spent about 20 hours on it so far, and about 5 hours of that resulted in me sitting in the hole laying the brick in the rain.. I was covered in mud. When I am done, I will take some pictures...

"We plan on placing plastic/vinyl lattice around the enclosure about 2 feet high, then finding a way to have an overhang so she can not excape. "

We used that product and the little ones would try to get through or just sat there looking what was on the other side. Then one day I came home to find peeps 14" up he had learned to climb it. We went to rock walls and soild fence panels now.

I think its great for a project you both can do together.

Our goal is to build it on a budget. So far we have spent no money on the enclosure and do not plan to. As far as the climbing, We will put an overhang to keep her from escaping. If we end up having problems with it, we will change it, but since we already have the vinyl lattice we're going to give it a try first.

I hear about all these people going out and spending $1000 on enclosures, but I think it's very possible to do it on a very low budget... less than $100.

A lot of stores sell logs (real or fake) that are cut into tunnels, I am making one of those by taking an actual log and doing the chiseling myself... We may end up having to buy a couple bags of mulch if she has trouble digging into the dirt, but we can get big bags of mulch for $2 each.