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Housing:
Care
in captivity should mimic its natural habitat as much as possible.
Ideally they should be kept in large outdoor pens. The pen
should be located where it can receive some direct sunlight early in the
day and dappled light the rest of the day The substrate
should be leaf litter. In my pen, 1/3 is covered with at least 6" of
composted hay. This provides an abundance of grubs, worms, slugs,
millipedes and other food. The rest of the pen is covered with about an
inch of leaf litter. Outdoor pens can be planted with shade loving
plants such as ferns and Hostas. Also, they need a water source for
soaking and drinking. Mine spend a good portion of the day soaking. I use large glazed ceramic flower pot bottoms
partially sunk into the substrate. Indoor
pens also should be as large as space will allow. Adult box
turtles. For the most part aquariums are unsuitable. A minimum
sized pen can be made from a 50 gallon
Rubbermaid storage container.
Although very functional, a storage container isn't
very
attractive. With a little imagination (and some carpentry skills), very
attractive pens can be made. To the right is an excellent example by
Ellen Friedman.
When kept indoors, it is crucial that a UVB-emitting
reptile bulb be used. I prefer the
UVHeat type bulb. Box Turtles like to soak often and should have an adequately large
water dish that they can easily get in and out of. When kept indoors I
usually soak them once a week in a large dishpan with a couple inches of
lukewarm water. They tend to defecate in the water dish so these need to
be cleaned daily. Humidity is a major issue. Most box turtles are kept far
to dry. This leads to eye problems which are often mistaken for eye
infections and/or respiratory infections. To keep the humidity high I use
sphagnum moss/Bed-a-Beast/sand mix. This is kept moist with daily misting.
They should have hiding spots and an area for burrowing available. Florida
Box Turtles should have a basking area that is maintained at 87-90°F., and a
cooler, shaded area.
Diet:
60% or more of the diet is composed of animal matter.
Some of the "animal" matter they eat in the wild includes: slugs,
snails, worms, grubs, caterpillars, beetles, pill bugs, sow bugs,
centipedes, crickets, grasshoppers, spiders, flies, crawfish and
carrion. Essentially, if they can catch it, they will eat it.
The rest is plant matter. A large part of which is
fungi (mushrooms etc). Moss, berries and grass are also eaten.
More information can be found at
http://aboxturtle.com/diet.htm | 
