# I have a Box Turtle



## Tucker57 (Nov 20, 2010)

I LOVE box turtles....I have 5 of them in a pen out in my yard. I bought several of them (back when you could do it legally), and one of them is "home grown." Mine are Shelly, Maya, Picasso, Mac and Lucky. I don't know what it is about box turtles, but I just love them.


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## Bitsy'sMom (Aug 27, 2011)

Tucker57 said:


> I LOVE box turtles....I have 5 of them in a pen out in my yard. I bought several of them (back when you could do it legally), and one of them is "home grown." Mine are Shelly, Maya, Picasso, Mac and Lucky. I don't know what it is about box turtles, but I just love them.


How do you keep them outside? I would like to put Henry outside at least part of the year, but it's too cold here ( Wisconsin ) most of the year. I do put him outside in a big plastic box with a small amount of water every other day or so in the summer. In winter he has to stay in his large aquarium in the house. He eats better and seems happier in summer.


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## Tucker57 (Nov 20, 2010)

Our family's first box turtle was an inside turtle, and it ended up dying after a winter power failure caused it to get a "cold." I decided at that point that any future turtle would live outside. I haven't had any more health issues, though I have lost a couple of turtles over the years (a couple disappeared, though I'm not sure how, and one died, but I have no idea how old it was).

I live in PA, so my winter isn't as long as yours, but when it gets cold, my turtles dig themselves underground and hibernate. I built a large (about 8X12) pen outside for them to live in all year round. When building a turtle pen, though, you need to dig the sides down a ways so they don't just dig out. Turtles don't have many natural enemies, but dogs are definitely on the list!


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