Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey all,

When can I start putting my box turtles back outside in their enclosure? I live in Illinois.

Thank you!
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Kelly Wood

1.1 Cherry Head Redfoots
1.0 Brazillian Redfoots
0.0.2 Leopard tortoises
0.0.2 Sulcata tortoises
1.1 Sandfire Bearded Dragons
1.0 Maliuromastyx
0.2 Dogs
0.2 Parakeets
1.3 three-toed box turtles
and a number of bantam chickens

Have you had your last freeze yet?
If that is likely, if you are having nice, warm weather, it would probably be fine, as long as they have leaves or hay to burrow under at night.

Thank you for replying back. I do not know about the last freeze yet, but our weather has been warming up into the 70's and then dropping down into the high 30's low 40's.

If I provide them with plenty of burrowing substrate, do you think that would be okay?

Thank you so much!
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Kelly Wood

1.1 Cherry Head Redfoots
1.0 Brazillian Redfoots
0.0.2 Leopard tortoises
0.0.2 Sulcata tortoises
1.1 Sandfire Bearded Dragons
1.0 Maliuromastyx
0.2 Dogs
0.2 Parakeets
1.3 three-toed box turtles
and a number of bantam chickens

Yeah, are you in southern Illinois? Chicago still looks a little cool. I use "weather.com", plug in my zip code and look at the short term and long range forecasts.

Plenty of burrowing substrate will help, a light freeze at night isn't a problem as long as they can burrow. But I wouldn't take them out of a warm house and put them out until its up to the high 60s or 70s during the day.

I've got juveniles inside and am waiting for a stretch of warm weather before I put them out. I'm hoping that will be in the next week. I had some 3.5 year olds that hibernated for the first time this year in a wading pool(dirt covered with layers of leaves and hay, topped off with a tarp) and they did fine, I've found them all and given them a soak, but its still cool enough that most of them dug down into the dirt again. A couple of them come out and bask. I have some photos of their setup that I will try to post this weekend.

Yuppers! SO. Illinois. I am only about 4 hours from Chicago, but it is amazing how different everything is. Here, the trees are budding, the bugs are out and the grass is getting pretty green.

Up around chicago, the grass is still brown, the trees are not doing anything yet. I get a kick out of how different the climates can be just from a few hours away.

The temps are to be in the 70's this weekend, so I will put the boxies out and let them enjoy some fresh air and sunshine.

Thank you for your help. I look forward to seeing your setup pictures.
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Kelly Wood

1.1 Cherry Head Redfoots
1.0 Brazillian Redfoots
0.0.2 Leopard tortoises
0.0.2 Sulcata tortoises
1.1 Sandfire Bearded Dragons
1.0 Maliuromastyx
0.2 Dogs
0.2 Parakeets
1.3 three-toed box turtles
and a number of bantam chickens