Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have an indoor 10’ by 5’ enclosure for 2 box turtles. Can someone recommend a good cheap substrate I can cover it with? Can I use wood chips (cedar for example) sold for garden purposes at Home Depot? I was thinking of using CareFresh small animal litter but I’m afraid that’s going to be a little pricey. I’ve used a mixture of peat moss and potting soil before but it was so damn heavy and such a pain to clean. Thanks in advance for any advice.

Avoid cedar chips or pine or anything that would give off that fresh piney smell...it's actually not good for your turtles at all! The aromatic oils can cause respiratory problems and otherwise irritate the eyes and throat of your turtle.

Focus on materials that maintain humidity levels, which is critical when overwintering indoors.

In the past when I've had to house turtles indoors for the winter I have used a mixture of peat moss and leaves from the yard. For headstarts I've raised, I just used peat moss. To me, it's more important to have a substrate that will retain moisture well, and mulches just don't work very well int hat application.

Another thing to try as part of a mix is sphagnum moss, which is the long fibered 'raw' form of peat most that can retain many many times it's weight in water.

StephF: You mentioned that I should “focus on materials that maintain humidity levels, which is critical when overwintering indoors.” This is interesting because I have never run into any real problems with keeping my turtles awake through the winter. The males seem to get a little depressed towards the end but as soon as the weather warms up I put them back outside and they seem to perk right up and do fine. Anyway thanks for the great advice...I’m thinking I’ll just go back to soil and peat.

It's important for their health, not necessarily for keeping them awake...

I love carefresh and use it exclusively for my garter snakes (dry) it absorbs runny garter snake poop very effectively, however I would definately NOT recomend it's use for box turtles though because it grows bacteria and fungus like crazy when it gets wet and stays wet. The idea with snakes is to keep them dry, the opposite of what you want for box turtles (moist). I agree milled peat stays moist yet is light, but it's very dusty when dry, and clingy on its own when wet. I would think the mix I use minus the sand, top soil, and compost, would still work indoors and be easy to clean, which would then consist of just milled peat and hardwood mulch mixed, just my 1 cent worth.
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Jeff Benfer
1.0 cinnamon pastel Python regius
1.1 pastel Python regius
1.1 mojave Python regius
0.3 normal Python regius
1.3 Terrapene carolina thriunguis
2.3 Terrapene carolina carolina
4.1 Kinosternon baurii
1.1 Malaclemys terrapin terrapin
2.2 double het albino and anerythristicThamnophis sirtalis parietalis
1.0 anerythristic Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis
2.3 Iowa snow Thamnophis radix
0.2 het Christmas albino Thamnophis radix
1.1 double het cherry erythristic, albino Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis
1.1 melanistic Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis
2.0 66% het snow Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis
1.1 triple heterozygous for amelanistic,carmel, and stripe Pantherophis guttatus
0.1 anerythristic motley Pantherophis guttatus
0.1 butter p.h. stripe Pantherophis guttatus
0.1 carmel stripe p.h. amel Pantherophis guttatus
0.1 amelanistic p.h. carmel,stripe Pantherophis guttatus

"hardwood mulch" That sounds good. Where do I purchase that? Can I get it at a garden center? Is it free of the dangerous oils StephF warned me about? How about a mix of hardwood mulch, peat and soil?

You can get it at any garden center.

Generally speaking, pines and other conifers are considered 'softwoods' and maple, oak, various nuts etc. are considered 'hardwoods'. So, hardwood mulch will not contain any aromatics, however it can contain good sized chunks of wood. See if you can find something called 'double shredded' hardwood mulch.

That is a nice size indoor enclosure. Garden centers, Home Depots etc. sell hardwood mulch, generally about $3.50 for a good size bag. I think mixing it with peat and soil would be a better idea than it alone, and it would lighten up your mixture a bit. As you probably already know, peat is great at holding water, but when it is dry (like when it is first purchased) it is incredibly difficult to wet the first time.

I haven't see the double shredded here, but it sounds good and if it were available around here that is definately what I would use. This might not help too much now, but what I do is every year I buy a bunch of bags of hardwood mulch then lay the bags outside, and i actually use last years bags, that way it is half broken down or composted if you will, that way it has softened up the sharp edges of the wood, so it's not so sharp and pokey'.
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Jeff Benfer
1.0 cinnamon pastel Python regius
1.1 pastel Python regius
1.1 mojave Python regius
0.3 normal Python regius
1.3 Terrapene carolina thriunguis
2.3 Terrapene carolina carolina
4.1 Kinosternon baurii
1.1 Malaclemys terrapin terrapin
2.2 double het albino and anerythristicThamnophis sirtalis parietalis
1.0 anerythristic Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis
2.3 Iowa snow Thamnophis radix
0.2 het Christmas albino Thamnophis radix
1.1 double het cherry erythristic, albino Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis
1.1 melanistic Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis
2.0 66% het snow Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis
1.1 triple heterozygous for amelanistic,carmel, and stripe Pantherophis guttatus
0.1 anerythristic motley Pantherophis guttatus
0.1 butter p.h. stripe Pantherophis guttatus
0.1 carmel stripe p.h. amel Pantherophis guttatus
0.1 amelanistic p.h. carmel,stripe Pantherophis guttatus

boxienuts: You said, "I buy a bunch of bags of hardwood mulch then lay the bags outside, and i actually use last years bags..." Isn't there a danger of introducing external parasites by doing this or do you mean you keep the bags sealed? If they are sealed do they really decompose that much? This sounds like it may be a good idea.

I don't try to raise my box turtles in a sterile enviroment, just clean, I'm so worried about parasites, there isn't anything in those bags of mulch that can't just crawl into their pens anyway. The bags aren't open but the have holes to breath and get rained on and sunshine to heat, and yes is partially decomposing, and the "benifit" in my oppinion is that bugs can and do get in, so after a year outside there are all kinds of pill bugs, centipedes, and earthworms in the mulch, which my boxies love to munch on. In your case you might not want a bunch of bugs inside your house?
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Jeff Benfer
1.0 cinnamon pastel Python regius
1.1 pastel Python regius
1.1 mojave Python regius
0.3 normal Python regius
1.3 Terrapene carolina thriunguis
2.3 Terrapene carolina carolina
4.1 Kinosternon baurii
1.1 Malaclemys terrapin terrapin
2.2 double het albino and anerythristicThamnophis sirtalis parietalis
1.0 anerythristic Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis
2.3 Iowa snow Thamnophis radix
0.2 het Christmas albino Thamnophis radix
1.1 double het cherry erythristic, albino Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis
1.1 melanistic Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis
2.0 66% het snow Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis
1.1 triple heterozygous for amelanistic,carmel, and stripe Pantherophis guttatus
0.1 anerythristic motley Pantherophis guttatus
0.1 butter p.h. stripe Pantherophis guttatus
0.1 carmel stripe p.h. amel Pantherophis guttatus
0.1 amelanistic p.h. carmel,stripe Pantherophis guttatus

parasites
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Jeff Benfer
1.0 cinnamon pastel Python regius
1.1 pastel Python regius
1.1 mojave Python regius
0.3 normal Python regius
1.3 Terrapene carolina thriunguis
2.3 Terrapene carolina carolina
4.1 Kinosternon baurii
1.1 Malaclemys terrapin terrapin
2.2 double het albino and anerythristicThamnophis sirtalis parietalis
1.0 anerythristic Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis
2.3 Iowa snow Thamnophis radix
0.2 het Christmas albino Thamnophis radix
1.1 double het cherry erythristic, albino Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis
1.1 melanistic Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis
2.0 66% het snow Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis
1.1 triple heterozygous for amelanistic,carmel, and stripe Pantherophis guttatus
0.1 anerythristic motley Pantherophis guttatus
0.1 butter p.h. stripe Pantherophis guttatus
0.1 carmel stripe p.h. amel Pantherophis guttatus
0.1 amelanistic p.h. carmel,stripe Pantherophis guttatus