Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My little brother has a box turtle that we built a pin for outside due to your suggestions....
The little girl (i think its a girl... ornate box turtle... eyes aren't red) just keeps digging and digging... almost burying herself and laying there...
Is this normal? Maybe she's gravid?
We're worried about her digging her way out... (again lol) so we've been keeping her inside during night time, and checking on her hourly during the day.
Any ideas?

Make sure the enclosure is well planted. During the course of the day they don't like to be exposed. Mine usually come out early morning and late afternoon. Then during the day they head for cover. Animals in the wild seem to follow this same pattern.
Ed

If by well planted you mean... tall grass and dirt... then yes Oh and a tree, he has a big ol tree lol

Well tall grass is good but invest in some low growing shuberry. Small bushes and shrubs make nice cool hiding places and may discourage digging. Also large pieces of bark or driftwood strewn about her enclosure (or your yard if you can make it not so unsightly) will provide cover as well. Try digging a small hole yourself and partially covering with a piece of wood and plant a small shrub next to it. Perhaps the girl will use this as a hiding/sleeping place.

You should make the pen walls go into the ground a ways. For my temporary pens I only went 4 inches, but this was close to being dangerous, as my turtles are digging scrapes now to the bottom of the in ground part. Luckily I am expanding my pens now and just finished half of the foot deep trench for a one foot deep in the ground wall around the entire area. A lot of digging, but worth it to prevent burrowing out.

I don't think they are consciously burrowing to get under the wall, but rather burrowing to get to a safe spot (they like digging and burying themselves) and accidentally getting under the wall, but either way, if they surface on the other side, that's a problem.