Habitat - Indoor :: Box Turtle and Snapping Turtle

[gamingstaff]

I would like any critiques or creative suggestions for my snapping and box turtle habitats.

For the snapping turtle I have a 10 gallon tank (he is a hatchling), a cool log (made out of some hard material but don't worry it was made for fish and turtles, bought it at the pet store), and then a heat lamp attached pointing over the log and some water around the log. I am using a night glo bulb so he won't see it at night and it won't keep him up. But I have a ton of space ( at least 3/4 of the tank) just empty. I put a rock like an inch wide by and inch tall in there cause I heard they like to move things around but he doesn't touch it. Any suggestions on thing I can get to perk up the place for him?

For my box turtle I have him in a 3 foot long by 2 foot wide plastic tub. I filled it with about 4 inches of pine shavings, I have a big water bowl in there for him to go to the bathroom and soak in (which I empty every day), and in a corner I have this great peat moss that I mist every day to keep damp and a cut up cardboard box to make a small shelter over the peat moss. Then the heat lamp is pointing is another corner where it is just pine shavings if he wants to move from burrowing in the peat moss to the pine shavings. Any suggestions for his habitat to spice it up?

Thanks in advance for suggestions.

[grey goose]

the Boxie setup sounds fine to me. I have a friend who raises them and he uses whats called a "breeder tank", which are wide and shallow. He uses AstroTurf and pine shavings plus a cave for them to hide in.
You do realize that snapping turts get very large and are very difficult to handle? They are more suited to outside ponds and lakes.....

[ZombieTurtle]

in the turtle tank you can put aquatic plants (that they liek to eat), or turtledock or bubblestone. large river rocks (bigger than turtles head). some kind of tunnel made out of plastic tubing or pvc. there are several otehr things you can do, just try to come up with something creative.

and i agree snapping turtle will get big and from what i understand, aggressive.

[gamingstaff]

its cool I will serve the snapper fish and if he doesn't eat them I have a ladle I scoop his food out with. So it's all good. Thanks for the suggestions.

[jenaero]

Please REMOVE the pine shavings! They can cause respiratory problems, among other things. Please look over the box turte care sheets listed in the Box Turtle and Tortoise section. Boxies belong in a mixture of peat/dirt, not shavings.

[marisa]

Why don't you look at www.chelydra.org for info on how to care for snappers...

[industrial_girl_2000]

Sounds like you have put in quite a bit of work on both set ups! I agree with what Jenaero & Marisa said. There are a few unique things that you will need to know with snapper-care. For example, they like the water a bit cooler than an RES (among other things....enjoy the reading!).

Welcome to turtle-keeping!