Hi and a few questions

[DaniH]

Hi! I’ve had what I believe to be a three toed box turtle for a year now. My in laws picked her up crossing the road and brought her to me. I found this forum then doing tons of research on how to care for her and have really enjoyed how knowledgeable and helpful everyone seems to be.
I do have a couple questions because lately I’ve had some doubts on my care for her and I know I slipped for awhile and didn’t do as I should so I’m really wanting to get back on track with her care.
1. Her diet includes: snails that my kids find and put in her enclosure, worms that my kids do the same, romaine and green leaf lettuce, strawberries, tomatoes, squash, zucchini, bananas, carrots, and a couple different brands of turtle pellets. She doesn’t really eat all of those different things but I do offer them. Is that an ok diet? What other things should I include?
2 I’m going to try to post some pictures and I was wondering if she looked healthy. Also if I made the right call of three toed box turtle. And maybe anyway to tell her age though I’m sure that’s going to be pretty much impossible but I am kind of curious.
3. I’ve been keeping her in an outside enclosure made using one of the biggest kiddie pools is that an ok size? I really want to give her something bigger and I’m working on it but it’s been a very slow process. I’ll post pictures of it when I get home since I don’t have a full picture of it and was curious on what else I should do to make it better.
Ok I am finally done for now I think sorry for the long novel.

 

[DaniH]

Not sure why all the pictures ended up at the top sorry

 

[Dave’s not here man]

Hello! Ive also had a 3 toed box turtle for about 6 months that was saved from a friends backyard when it was flooding and also have many questions regarding him. I made him a large box 4’x2’ with a plexiglass front. When I first had him he was very active and ate almost anything I gave him like worms, strawberrys, tomato, lettuce, and other things. I just moved to college and brought him with me and now he has stopped eating and stays buried. I used to keep him in the garage with the lights on for him but now he is inside which I was thinking might be the issue. Also I was wondering how you figured out that your turtle was a female because I just picked that mine would be a guy. And to answer your question about age, you can count the rings on one of the sections of shell. You could look it up but I think each ring is a year.

 

[Gillian M]

Welcome to the forum.

 

[ColleenT]

For feeding- please read this article.

http://www.boxturtlefacts.org/Feeding_North_American_Box_Turtles.pdf

 

[DaniH]

Here’s her enclosure. I want to add more plants and at least one more hide but haven’t found the right one yet and not sure on what plants to add though I’m thinking of just adding one maybe two more of the big ones. Sorry about the dirty water she’s constantly going through her water dish. I also want to get something a little deeper for her water but not sure what to use that won’t take up a ton of space. She does travel around the edges a lot though. Is that normal? Or should I plant or put a hide close to the edge that she can’t climb over but that might help break up her line of sight and might keep her from just going in circles?
Any tips on how to improve her home would be amazing

 

[DaniH]

Thank you for the article I will go and read that now

 

[PJay]

Check out the Tortoise Forum box turtle care sheet: https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/box-turtle-care-sheet.93937/

 

[DaniH]

Thanks everyone for the help! Both articles were very helpful and lots of really good information.
I’m thinking about trying to find another kiddie pool and finding a way to connect the two. Any tips on how to do that? I unfortunately am renting right now and the landlord told me I couldn’t dig around outside so just making her enclosure bigger by building one isn’t going to be able to happen right now but he didn’t say anything about not being able to put stuff on top of the grass.
She had a vet check yesterday and got a mostly clean bill of health he says with all the rain and temp drops lately she might be trying to start up with some respiratory issues but nothing serious now and to keep a close eye on her. So is there anything I can do to help prevent it? Also she weighs 350 grams is that a healthy weight I tried looking around on the Internet to see but I can’t find much? The vet said she felt like a healthy weight and I’m not sure how exactly to tell just by the feel of her.