Habitat - Indoor :: (hatchling) eastern box turtle set-up

[zoologist]

Substrate is pavers sand with organic peatmoss. green plants are fake (plastic), the feed dish, soaking dish and hide are all potting materials. The substrate in the hide is sargasum moss (sp?). 10.0 UVB bulb and a 25w house bulb. The cement stone is to help to keep the turtle's nails trimmed (eventually, i'm sure.) her diet is meal worms cause she will only eat it if it moves the worms are too big. diet help would be appreciated. Humidity stays between 80/90% and the temp is a constant 80f.
overall cost for the entire set up- less then $50!

lid off

lid on (to keep in humidity)

better view

North end:

South end:

using the soaking dish to its exact purpose!

and pictures of my baby, Carolina.




Jose and Carolina.
Jose was born around the same time as Carolina (last fall), but from a different nest. Interestingly enough, all of the turtles from Jose's nest are smaller then the ones from Carolina. Different parents i guess.

enjoy!

[Chrisbarnett]

Very nice!

Just make sure those lights aren't going to melt the plastic, although I am sure you are well aware of this.

Very cute Boxie too!

[Take-One]

And make sure the UVB is 12 inces away. I know Terryo mentioned this on Turtletalk but I wanted to remind you.

[zoologist]

lights won't melt the plastic. the bulb is too weak, and so far the plastic has only gotten mildly hot.... i've been kinda paranoid about that.

thanks! thats an oldish pic and the lamp has been corrected

[imderanged]

Carolina is adorable!!!That set up looks nice...Im just concerned about what looks like gravel in her soaking dish, I know that eating rocks is a problem with RES, and someone recently posted an Xray of a tortoise that ate a screw! So I wouldn't put it past a boxie to possibly eat rocks...

[zoologist]

yes it is gravel. however, she is small enough that she can't get her mouth around it! it is in there as a ledge, because without it she cannot pull herself out of the soaking dish.

[marisa]

What sweet-looking boxies!

[Tenodera]

They are extremely CUTE! so small!
Yea, you might have to remove the gravel once they get bigger.

I'm going to the petstore tomorrow to buy mealworms for my boxie, since he won't eat the dogfood/veggies/carrots/turtlefood/shrimp/meat I give him. I think live food might tempt him to eat.

[zoologist]

It does. and its the cutest thing when she spies a live worm. She'll run over to it... stare it in the eye and CHOMP! it takes her like 10 minutes to eat them though, haha.
The trouble is finding insects small enough and slow enough for her to eat. Also, i've heard mealworms should not be a staple diet. :/

[Tenodera]

Yep, they don't contain nearly enough nutrition and they are are packed in a very hard to to digest shell. I just need a couple to get my guy STARTED on eating, and slowly I'll wean onto other diets. Have you tried putting freeze-dried shrimp or turtlefood for your little guy?

[zoologist]

i've tried bloodworms and mixed in some reptomin but she won't touch it.
i did put in some fresh, raw shrimp and she ate the tiniest piece. i took it out a few hours later so it wouldnt stink up the tank.

[Chrisbarnett]

Have you tried Nightcrawlers? My moms ornate LOVES them.

[imderanged]

Do you think the ones at the bait shops are good enough quality for pet food?

[Chrisbarnett]

Yes they are.

[steve]

It's very nice! And the boxie too

You might want to add another thermometer, one at the end with the lights. Perhaps a digital one so you can just drop the probe down and keep the display above the lid.