Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hey everyone my grandpa(who is 89) was outside wallking around up the road from his house, saw a box turtle and he took it home with him, so im planning building him a cage, and would just like some back ground on the boxes

what size cage for one
what do they eat
what are the temps
best substrate
do they need the water(i know there a turle but do they need a pond) and if they need a pond my rand pa has a liie 9 ft across pond that he had gold fish use to have a snapper in and now has like 15 frogs

thanks for all your help
and answers as soon as possible would be great also thats again
happy herping

why not just let it go where it was found?, and all your questions can be answered either on this forums archives or http://www.boxturtlesite.org/bxbook.html
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absolutely! the best thing that you can do for turtles, and people who care about turtles, is set it free back where it came from.

far too many wild caught turtles die in the hands of inexperienced captors. wild caught reptiles stress easily, may refuse to eat, and starve themselves to death. there has been a rash of this on another forum I post on. 1 turtle dead last week, 2 currently refusing to eat and the numbskulls won't let them go. there is not enough time for you to learn captive care of wild box turtles if something should go wrong. box turtles are in population decline everywhere due to habitat loss and indescriminate collection. please let it go, in exactly the place it was found, so that it may bring new box turetles into the world.

Mick
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"When tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign foe."

James Madison

Well its not good to keep WC box turtles but if you do which i dont reccomend i think the cage should be as big as you can go. 1mile x1 mile. Or rlease it. You can go and adopt and give a turtle that needs a home a chance. Instead of taking a turtles life of freedom. Think about it its your call.

I must agree with the others, the best thing for the turtle would be to let it go. However, if your grandfather insists on keeping it www.boxturtlesite.org has tons of good information. As to you question about water, no, they do not need a pond but they do need fresh drinking water that they can get into, like a pie pan.

thanks for throwing some info out there guys.
I had just become so frustrated with the other WC death and refusals to eat I been dealing with, that I forgot to offer something to help until they let it go?

Mick
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"When tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign foe."

James Madison

Why don't you let it go, and order a captive bred box turtle online? You'll have more luck with it as far as health issues are concerned as well.
And in the meantime, as you browse breeders to purchase from, you can read up about box turtles & educate yourself all about their housing requirements & food needs get that stuff together so that when you do get one, he'll already have a perfect home waiting for him! And you will be knowledgeable as to what to feed it.
(also you might want to look into adopting one...they are free, all you need to pay is shipping costs...check out CORR (Colorado Reptile Rescue).

Hope that helps!