Reptile & Amphibian Forums

A box turtle layed 2 eggs in my neighbor's yard today. She layed them right in the middle of an area where they play volleyball, so I dug them up and am incubating them with various snake and gecko eggs that I have. My questions are:

correct temp for incubation (currently it's at 85)
how long until they hatch
lastly, the neighbor would like to keep them as pets. Are they hard to get started?

Thanks!

85 is a good safe temp. Boxies are temperature sexed so the closer to 80, the more males you get and the closer to 90 the more females. 85 will give you a mix of the two, in average clutches. Typically 6-10 weeks is the incubation timeframe.

Assuming they are born healthy, baby boxies aren't too hard to start so long as you are aware of standard boxie needs. The babys will require a humid environment (70-90%) and plenty of hide space (moss, spaghum, brush)and a safe water dish (.5" water depth - low walls). Habitat temps in the 70-80 range (with heat & uv lighting) are sufficient and will prevent drying the little guys out. They start eating live foods within a few weeks of hatch (pill bugs, meal worms, larvae, redworms) and some will take fruit and veggies young (1-2 years), but others won't until they are subadult.

In captivity, they usually reach 2" in the first year and begin early coloration development. This will further develop over the next 4-5 years. At 6, they are usually mature.

Cheers.

Paul

Picture of Baby Lemonade enclosed... 3 years old - 3" 100 grams.

They are pretty difficult to keep as pets (when compared to most herps) and labor intensive their first few months.

www.aileo.com/aileona/

once you get a tank set up with lights, heat, humidity, substrate, plants, water dish, hide spots, etc... then you have to maintain it, change the water every single day (do not skimp on this), and mist and tend the tank daily. You also have to pull out the youngsters and soak them in a dish of shallow water, then offer them their food and get them on a daily routine. Often babies will tend to go dormant or be relatively inactive, the regular soaking/feeding helps keep them going.

A year after they hatch they should move outdoors. A couple hundred dollar investment for the first year of life, and then another couple hundred for an outdoor pen later (once they move outdoors they are extremely easy to care for)

Seeing that they do take some work to get going, and that they need live food the first year, makes me think I'll suggest to my neighbor that they release them after hatching. I would hate for them to not get the attention that they need.

A few years ago, most of the people here would be telling you they were impossible, as nobody was really having much reliable luck. Over time we figured out it was possible, just kind of a pain in the butt, what with maintaining all the humidity, perfectly clean water, mistings, soaking, feeding... it's a lot of work for such a dinky little critter. After their first 4-5 months they kind of end up with the swing of things and do pretty well, and once they go outside they grow like crazy and do great, it's just that first jump start set of months that's really not cheap or easy (or even all that fun after the novelty wears off).

I wouldn't mind giving it a try. I already have snakes, chams, geckos, etc. Since these eggs were layed in the neighbors yard, I said it was up to them whether to release or keep as pets. They aren't herp nuts like I am though, and I don't see them putting out that much money and time. I think the novelty for them would wear off in less than a week.

yeah, in that case I would definitely recommend release (or that they let you keep them). I use a 40 breeder tank for my babies so I can get a proper heat gradient set up, then I use a thermostat hooked up to a dome fixture with a ceramic heat bulb at one end set to 81 or so. That is the hot side. The whole thing has a flourescent UVB bulb (I use reptisun 5.0 or iguanalite 5.0). Substrate is usually 3-4 inches of bed-a-beast mixxed with soil. I scatter some grass or clover seeds around on top, plant a houseplant or small fern, make a rock cave, put in a glazed ceramic plant saucer (really shallow), and that's it.

The light is on a timer, the heat element is on 24/7 with the thermostat. Keeps it warm at night.

With this setup, I feed daily by removing them and soaking them for 20 minutes in a few mm of lukewarm water. Then I feed them in a nother bin for 20 minutes (no water in this bin). While they soak and eat I clean their water dish (EVERY DAY! this is a must!), check the plants in their tank, water where needed, and mist the whole thing. THen I return them home and sometimes put a butterdish lid in there with a few fruits/veggies on it to snack on.

I move the feedings to every other day after about 4 months. At 9-10 months they move outdoors permanently.

Works great for me now that I've figured all this out, but it's kind of a lot of work each day (about an hour every evening you feed), and if you don't have the supplies, a thermostat, heater element, uvb bulb, uvb fixture, dome fixture, tank, and the misc extras can add up fast.