The Best Care for a Box Turtle

Video Transcript

Hi. My name is Tim Cole. I'm with the Austin Reptile Service and I've been keeping reptiles and amphibians for over forty years. And we're here to talk about keeping box turtles. This is a male ornate box turtle. And box turtles do very well kept in outside pens, especially if you live in the areas where these turtles are native. They do much better being kept outside, due to the sun providing natural heat and UV light, which is what they need. They can also burrow into the soil if they want to. We provide shaded covers for them, shallow bowls of water. Keep in mind, most box turtles are protected in the states they live in. So, you want to check on your laws before you keep a box turtle as a pet. We can tell this is a male because of his red eyes. Females generally have brown eyes. We can also tell its a male by the length of his tail in the bottom of his shell. Box turtles are very personable. They're omnivores. When they're young, they prefer to eat on insects, crickets and earthworms. And as they get older they'll switch over to eat different types of veggies, berries. So we give them quite a variety. And they'll still occasionally catch some insects while they're in an outdoor pen.

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