Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Just finally brought the boxies in last weekend, soaked them and weighed them all. I haven't seen them above ground for several weeks, but it really hasn't been that cold yet. They had all gained weight nicely and looked great, so they should be worry free for winter. I put them in the garage for awhile because my basement hasn't even really cooled down yet. This is the warmest November I can remember in Iowa. I don't even have ice on my koi pond yet and just took the pumps out last weekend too, just because I figured its time. I think I will leave them in the garage untill it gets bitter cold then move them to the basement to their usual spot by the sliding glass door, but thinking about leaving them in the garage for a colder brumation this year, to maybe help stimulate breeding next year, anyone have ideas or oppinion about that? please chime in. The garage is attached to the house but it does get very cold, definately below freezing at times in the middle of winter, if its' -30 outside i'm sure it's 10-20F in the garage maybe lower? There are times when the ice won't even melt off our cars in the garage all night, so I know it's well below freezing. Usually I would have moved them to the basement at the end of Oct. ususally around Halloween time. In the middle of winter I have taken temps in their tubs in the basement between 50-55, but maybe that really isn't cold enough for true brumation? I could put them in the refrigerator in our basement, less beer space, more turtle space.
Any thoughts, ideas, oppinions would be helpful to making a decision. thanks guys
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Jeff Benfer
gartersnakemorph.com

>>Just finally brought the boxies in last weekend, soaked them and weighed them all. I haven't seen them above ground for several weeks, but it really hasn't been that cold yet. They had all gained weight nicely and looked great, so they should be worry free for winter. I put them in the garage for awhile because my basement hasn't even really cooled down yet. This is the warmest November I can remember in Iowa. I don't even have ice on my koi pond yet and just took the pumps out last weekend too, just because I figured its time. I think I will leave them in the garage untill it gets bitter cold then move them to the basement to their usual spot by the sliding glass door, but thinking about leaving them in the garage for a colder brumation this year, to maybe help stimulate breeding next year, anyone have ideas or oppinion about that? please chime in. The garage is attached to the house but it does get very cold, definately below freezing at times in the middle of winter, if its' -30 outside i'm sure it's 10-20F in the garage maybe lower? There are times when the ice won't even melt off our cars in the garage all night, so I know it's well below freezing. Usually I would have moved them to the basement at the end of Oct. ususally around Halloween time. In the middle of winter I have taken temps in their tubs in the basement between 50-55, but maybe that really isn't cold enough for true brumation? I could put them in the refrigerator in our basement, less beer space, more turtle space.
>>Any thoughts, ideas, oppinions would be helpful to making a decision. thanks guys
>>-----
>>Jeff Benfer
>>gartersnakemorph.com

Hey Jeff,

We've had a cool start for fall here in the southwest. We even had snow before Halloween which is really unusual here. I haven't seen any of my turtles for over 6 weeks now. I've put a good amount of fall leaves in my enclosure. We are right about a mile high where I live so we see daytime temps in the upper 40 to low 60. This year we have mostly seen low 50 daytime temps. Nights are in the high teens to mid 20s. We'll occasionally get down to the single digits.

This is the first year my turtles are spending the winter in their new enclosure. I built it on the south facing side of my yard which is where most of my turtles brumated when they had the run of the yard. Ive always been suprised at how shallow most of my turtles dig in during the winter. Most of them are just below the surface so they are pretty exposed to some really cold temps. When I was a kid I used to dig up my turtles during the winter just to satisfy my curiosity and was always suprised at how shallow they were. I remember some pretty bad winters back then too.

I always brumated my snakes at lower temps also. I never let them get down into the 30s but they often were expose to mid to low 40's (I raised thayeri and some other kingsnakes). I never had any problems with them breeding and I always had good fertility with my snakes. Most of my competitors brumated in the 50-60s and often had their females lay slugs.

I would say if you have some good substrate for them to burrow in and maybe put their tub on a peice of carpet or something to give a little insulation underneath they should be good in the garage.

BTW my sister from Nebraska and her family were here for Thanksgiving. They mentioned how cold it was here compared to the Omaha area.

Hey did you have any luck finding any of that "low fat high protein product" from your local woods? I did.

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Vichris
"The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane"- Marcus Aurelius

Thanks for the reply Vichris, sounds like your outdoor situation is perfect, south facing with leaves piled up should due the trick nicely. The nice thing about a pile of leaves exposed to the elimants outdoors is that even in the winter they are decomposing and giving off a little heat. I bet you will produce lots of little ones next year.
I still have them in the garage, I did put them on a piece of carpet like you said, as the concrete floor would really be cold. When it gets -20 to -30 in January, Febuary I plan to put a small heat pads under one end of the tubs just to keep them from turning into frozen rocks (the ones that don't get very warm, for non-desert retiles, but I think being in the garage with better humidity, more exposure to outdoor natural air, and total darkness will better simulate a more natural brumation this year and maybe maybe, just maybe, fingers crossed, get some eggs next summer.
I didn't have much time to spend out in the woods this fall due to being so busy at work with the H1N1 flu. I will send you a PM.
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Jeff Benfer
gartersnakemorph.com

Our fall here in DFW was warm as well; we actually just got our first freeze two nights ago. The funny thing, though, is my boxies have been down for weeks. As soon as it started to get in the 50's at night, no one wanted to get up in the morning. I took them out on the really warm days, but didn't force the issue too much and ended up tucking them in a few weeks ago.

I did put an extra layer of leaves down yesterday b/c it dipped down to 22 degrees last night. I know that's nothing compared to your sub-zero weather, Jeff, but I have a feeling my boxies have been Texified, just like me and don't care for the nippiest bit of cold.

Have a safe winter, all.

Curtis, your lucky to have such mild winters, but I think you are wise to still give them some leaves for insulation, 20 is still well below freezing. Iowa certainly is not the most ideal place to have box turtles, but I have tried to provide them with a quality life, and think for the most part have done, so, but there is always room for improvement and I will contually try to improve their conditions. I didn't get around to building a larger pen this last summer, because I put all my effort into building a huge koi pond, which turned out quite nice, we really enjoyed it this summer and fall, but first thing next spring building a big boxie pen around my small goldfish pond will be first priority.
I know it's off topic but I attached a pic of the pond, thought you might find it interesting, I dug it by hand with a shovel and haulded in all the rock, appoximately 30 tons, with the help of my friend and using both of our 4x4 pickups and 2 wheelbarrows, many, many back-breaking trips to the rock quarry and the material store for the fancy big pieces of rock, took about 5-6 weeks to complete. The pond is 35ft long x 12ft wide with a 25ft waterfall/stream coming down the side yard and a 6 ft tall fountain spray in the shallow end, the deep area is 3ft deep. Total cost was ~$2200, pretty low cost when you consider the liner alone was $900, probably would have cost at least 3 times that to have someone do it. My neighbors all think I am insane, lol, but no one can call me lazy, lol

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Jeff Benfer
gartersnakemorph.com

Nice pond! We're starting a pond this winter (hopefully).

Thanks, you should see it today, not much to look at, covered up with a 10" blanket of snow, lol, major blizzard here. Good luck creating your new pond, make it as big as you possibly can, and even then it won't seem like you made it big enough, theres no such thing too big, it's more a matter of how much yard space and how much you can afford to build and pay for the electricity every month...you probably already know exactly what I mean. If your like me you probably have already been planning and scheming for some time now. I started planning this pond before the day we moved into our new house which was 6 years ago, lol, partly because I had to finish the basement first and it took me that long to save up the money to do it too. Having that long to plan though, it turned out exactly the way I wanted it, the sound of the water running down the stream can be heard all over the yard and all throughout the house when the windows are open. Please send me a pic when you done.
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Jeff Benfer
gartersnakemorph.com

We'll have a lot of room. We're changing out our built-in pool (which will take some time all by itself) that doesn't get used too often any more now that we're empty nesters. We pay to swim in it for 3 or 4 months of the year and pay to keep it clean the other 8 or 9 months when it doesn't get used. The electricity for a pond pump has got to be less than a filter pump and a sweeper pump. Water usage will be less too. No cannonballs and water fights splashing gallons of water onto the deck and down the drain.

Jeff,

The pond looks GREAT! Are you or have you stocked it with any fish? I would think at least mosquito fish...

I have some winter projects planned for my enclosure. I think I'm going to trim up the posts all the way around and put on a cap and I'm going to replace the divider with one piece of wood for stability and more height. And re-compost and add more plants, of course.

I would love to see some more pics of the pond, if you have them. You could e-mail them to me if you don't want to post them on here. curtis9980@hotmail.com

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Jeff Benfer
gartersnakemorph.com