General Care for Indoor Box Turtles
General Care
There are tons of sites out there about how to ‘care’ for your box turtle, so I’ll keep this site to a minimum. You already know what kind of cage I prefer and the substrate I use, so I’ll just leave you with a few pointers that have helped me over the years.
Temperature
For my setup, I try to keep the cage between 77 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit, all year round. This may entail moving the thermostat down in the summer if it’s warm outside, and up in the winter to compensate for the difference in room temperature. Buy a stick on tank thermometer and put it inside the tank and monitor it daily, adjusting when necessary. If it gets too cold, your turtles may go into hibernation. If it gets too hot, they could get heatstroke or sunburn.
Toenails/Beaks
In nature, your turtle would most likely find rocks or other means to sharpen his beak; similarly, just by walking on rocky surfaces his toenails would be filed down. In captivity, this can be difficult, so if you notice his beak is getting too long, it is recommended that you hold the turtle and [gently file the beak with an emery board. Go with the natural shape of the beak, and be sure to rinse his face off when you’re done so he’s not eating sand and powdered beak. For the toenails, I use my dogs nail clippers and clip back the long nails a few millimeters every few months when I change the substrate. Like dogs, you can cut turtle nails too short, so be really careful. An easier way to tell if it’s safe to cut a portion of nail is to hold the nail up to a light source. Any nail before the dark pink line you’ll see is safe to trim, but to be safe take smaller pieces and work towards the line. Unfortunately if your turtles are like Jemma and Louie (especially Jemma) they’re probably not going to love getting pedicures, so it may take a while. In Jemma’s case, she will tuck her legs into her shell and I just have to be patient and wait for her to unfurl them back out. To cut all eight of her nails can take me upwards of 15 minutes!
In the chance you should draw blood, using a styptic pencil will usually help make it coagulate and stop the bleeding. You can get these at any pet supply store that stocks pet nail clippers. They can also be used on dogs and cats, but whatever you do, don’t share the same pencil with all your pets. Each breed should have its own stick. Also, if you do share clippers between pets, be sure to sterilize them after each use.
Turtles and Disease
Reptiles as a genus are well known for being carriers of bacteria like salmonella that while harmless to the reptile can be dangerous and even deadly to humans. This is why it is important to handle with care. Do not touch any reptile with an open wound, and always, always, always wash your hands thoroughly after each time you are in contact with them. It is recommended that children not even touch reptiles. In the case of turtles, unless it’s a snapper, they don’t usually bite, but because kids aren’t as delicate with animals as adults, there are always exceptions. Also, kids often forget to wash their hands, don’t wash their hands thoroughly enough, or even absent mindedly put fingers in their mouths en-route to a sink.
The upside to this is that if you are a parent with turtles they can be an extremely wonderful parenting resource- they can help teach kids not only about animal life, but about the importance of being clean and germ free. Keep in mind, though, kids aren’t the only ones who can get sick handling reptiles, so remember to keep yourself clean and sterile after touching them. I always keep a bottle of hand sanitizer nearby just in case, and when I wash out their water bowl (a veritable hotspot for germs and bacteria) I use rubber kitchen gloves, which I then wash in a disinfectant spray which contains bleach. If you do this, be sure to rinse the gloves thoroughly afterwards so that you don’t poison the turtles the next time you wear them. I even take it another step further- I will actually wash the sink basin out with Comet after each bowl refill, just to be safe.
Turtle Breeding
I am not an expert on breeding turtles, so I’ll keep this section very brief. I have on many occasions ‘walked in’ on Louie and Jemma mating. They tend to be very shy about this and will usually stop the second they make eye contact with me, so if I notice this happening, I usually leave the room and let them have their privacy. If you don’t want your turtles to mate, you can’t simply have a ‘talk’ with them, so either make sure all of your turtles are the same gender, or keep the males and females apart. If you don’t know the sex of your box turtle and can’t tell by the coloring alone, here is a site that may help.