Below are instructions and pictures on how to build box turtle housing.

Also check these webpages for box turtle housing from other box turtle owners.
Melissa Grays's Indoor Housing
Indoor and Outdoor Housing

Description: A Unique Turtle Living Quarters by Marianne Gehring in CT

Those of us who live in the colder climates on this earth face a common challenge if we decide not to hibernate our land loving turtles. What is best for our shelled friends during the colder winter months when they must be "indoors"?

Challenged by this question, Bill (my fiancee) came up with an idea for a unique living quarters for our "herd" of turtles. Stevie (my rehabbed ornate box turtle) lives with our other box turtles in this cozy, homemade "turtle bin." You'll read about cost, size and construction, mobility, substrate, water, heat and light, hiding areas, and caves. Read on, maybe you can use some of our ideas.

COST: Brace yourself, when all was said and done, the materials added up to around five hundred dollars! Ouch! Almost all of the materials are commonly available at a builders store, such as Home Depot. Despite the cost, we were actually quite pleased with the end result.

SIZE and CONSTRUCTION: The huge bin (Figure A) is 4-feet by 8-feet in floor space with 3-feet high walls (1.2m x 2.4m, with 1m walls). There are two "doors" that make up the top of the bin. These 4-foot by 4-foot hinged doors are made of wood framework. Ripply vinyl greenhouse roofing is nailed to the wood. This clear top acts like a moon roof in the summer. When the top is shut, it lets the light in and keeps the cool evening air out.

MOBILITY: I live in the northeast USA where we have cold and snowy winters. For this reason, the bin sports four large swivel caster wheels, one mounted at each corner. This setup enables us to easily roll it out for the summer sunshine, and roll it back into the garage for the winter. When "parked" for the season, each locked wheel sits on a block of wood centered inside a plastic pan full of water. These pans of water simulate a "moat." They effectively stop the ants from crawling up the wheels and into the bin.

SUBSTRATE: The substrate in the bin consists of about 4-inches (10cm) of mulch. I spray the mulch with water to keep it moist, as needed. Since the bin has a hinged top, the humidity stays high when the top is shut. The turtles love to dig down into the mulch and hide. As a point of interest, I noticed the mulch holds the heat at night very nicely. The turtles noticed it, too, for they dig down in the evening to sleep when the lights click off.

WATER: Water is provided by three large water bowls One is a ceramic Lizard Lagoon (giant size, Figure B). The other two bowls are glazed ceramic plant saucers available from plant nurseries. My gulf coast box turtle appreciates the larger 1-foot diameter water bowl. He can fit in it. I change the water in all three bowls daily (or more often as needed). These bowls see a lot of action. Everyone knows that turtles use water bowls for toilets!

HEAT and LIGHT: The inside temperature of the bin is maintained around 70F during the night with a gradual rise through-out the day to peak at 85F (21C to ~30C). We accomplished this in a few ways. These temperatures are maintained (economically) because the bin is insulated on all 6 sides with 3-inch thick "pink" foam insulation board between the walls. It's a bit over-kill, but it works! For night heating, there are 2 small electric "bathroom" heaters (on thermostats) mounted high on the inside walls (Figure C). For day heating, there are 6 spotlights mounted across the top. These track lights are nice, because you can swivel and aim them as needed.

There is a full spectrum fluorescent tube light (4-foot) mounted across the upper back wall for UVB during the winter. All the lights are on timers to simulate day/night cycles. This is great for hands off operation. I adjust them to simulate the seasons.

HIDING AREAS: The bin is "decorated" inside to simulate a forest floor with lots of hiding areas. A large hollowed out tree stump (Figure C) is in the center (Bill found it in the woods). The smaller turtles hide in there. The bigger turtles like to dig under it to sleep. Turns out that one of my females laid her eggs under the tree stump deep in the mulch during Christmas!! Clever spot she chose.

Silk bushes and vines are stuck into the mulch through-out the rest of the bin for additional privacy. (I chose silk because they would munch on the real stuff.) Each turtle has their "preferred" hangout. Bill thought to mount a section of a house gutter on the upper back wall to act as a planter. It is filled with non-toxic plants to help with air purification.

CAVES: There are two caves inside the bin, soon to be three (Figures B & C). Last summer I built a good size cave out of small diameter tree branches, cut to size. My lashing skills (learned in girl scouts) came in handy here to hold the branches together. Mulch covers the wood. A split log serves as a ramp for the turts to walk up and hang out on top. I placed a large silk "bush" of leaves on top of this cave for them to hide in. Murtz (our eastern box turtle) is so cute when she hides up there and peers out through the leaves. One of the spot lights shines there for basking.

The second cave consists of a giant Habba Hut (hollowed out half log) on the opposite side of the bin. The cave is butted up against the corner wall and placed on the mulch, with more mulch poured on top and down the sides. This serves as a ramp for curious torts to hang out on top. Again, there is a spot light and a silk bush for basking and privacy.

CONCLUSION: Well, that is our cozy, homemade "turt heaven" in Connecticut. Once the turtles (and I) got adjusted to the set-up, their health and well being has been most excellent. I even catch a glimpse of the turtle "courtship" thing happening under the warm basking lights! The lengths we all go to in order to provide the best accommodations for our shelled friends! (MLG 1998)

Materials and instructions to construct a beautiful, partially in-ground pen are as follows:

Approx 96 12" perforated bricks.
20 FT aluminum or vinyl soffit.
1 12FT 1x12 Cedar rough sawn siding.
1 8FT 1x12 Cedar rough sawn siding.
1 10FT 4" SQ cedar pole.
2 12FT 1x3 Furring strips.
1 10FT roll of Garden fencing with 1/2" squares 48IN wide.
Cost without the brick and cedar planks~$70.

We chose to use cedar as it is insect resistant and weathers very well. Cedar when used for outdoor pens is not a problem, however never use ceadr for indoor pens. If you choose to build this pen completely above ground do away with the soffit and use 1 each extra of the 12 & 8 foot cedar planks.

1. Dig the hole a little larger than needed for a 4' x 6' pen. Next dig the footers aprox 6" deeper at the corners to sink the poles.
2. You will need to cut the cedar siding in half to get 2 6FT & 2 4FT lengths, also cut the pole into 4 equal lengths of 2 1/2FT each. This way there is no waste. After hole is dug and level, screw one of the 4FT lenghts to the poles at both ends so you have a proper guide and lay them in their respective holes in corners. Then do the same at other end. We put the pen together on site in the hole to make sure the cedar siding was level with the ground.
3. After this is done you now measure and cut the soffit to size. The inside walls of the pen now measure 8IN shorter because of the 4" poles at either end. Measure the soffit so that it can be bent at a 90 degree angle and have a 2IN lip to attach to each pole. Attach the soffit by using a staple gun at very close intervals, aproximately 3IN to the botton edge of the cedar planks on the inside. Since we used rough sawn planks they have one smooth side. This is the side we faced into the pen. Be sure you have no rough edges. The soffit, at least aluminum kind, is easily cut to size by scoring it with a sharp knife then bending it til it snaps. This seems to make the cleanest edge.
4. After this is done fill in the dirt on the outside of pen & pack it down well to make sure the soffit is sitting in position nice & straight. Next make a layer of brick in bottom of floor making sure the bricks against the soffit are nice and tight against the wall. You may think this is over kill but we have a male Ornate boxer named Moximillian LeRue (MOXY) who could probably be hung upside down by his tail in a turtle straight jacket with his mouth taped shut and he would still get OUT! We used both perferated brick and perforated soffit so that there would be good drainage.
5. After bricks are lined on bottom floor start putting the dirt back. We used 50% of the original dirt mixed with 35% peat moss and 15% sand. This works very well and keeps the ground nice and soft for digging. Once you are full almost to top of the soffit put one last single layer of brick around the perimeter to stop the digging at walls, (a wonderful idea taken from Tess).
6. Now you are ready to put back some of the grass you hopefully saved. We made 2 ground areas for digging one of which has a nice hollowed out log found in the woods. This is Turtle Hollow. The other 2 hiding places are down in the front of pen. One is Turtle Cove, a 1FT broken length of Tera-Cotta pipe used on inside chimneys. The other is 2 of those 12IN bricks counter sunk partially in ground and reasonably dug out, spaced aprox 14In wide so they can go down into this area. It is covered by a large flat rock. This is the Bedrock Hotel. All three have piled in there and sleep in the stranged positions I've ever seen.
7. Instead of shrubbery that in a few years would probably get too large for the pen, we bought a couple of Blue Fescus Ornamental grass. These need no care and never get too big , & make GREAT bushes. There is also several ferns that grow wild around here.
8. Their pond is a 15 IN x 13IN x2IN heavy duty plastic serving tray bought at an area restaurant supply store. The sides are angled outward and make it easy for even my littlest named Zippadelia Rae (Zippy) to get in and out. This too is sunk into the ground. Magnolea Rose (Magpie) the other female seems to love to use the brick against the walls as a race course.

Now the screen covers. We decided to make screen covers for one obvious reason, MOXY. Also because of unwanted enemies, such as neighborhood dogs, hawks and who knows whatever else which eats all the catfood left on the porch at night. My wonderful husband Don made the covers using the furring strips.

First he mitered the ends like a picture frame and screwed them together with nonrusting angle irons. As you can see from the picture the doors are not of even widths. This is only because we built it under the deck steps for added protection from the wind. I wanted the doors to open outward from the middle.

Second he hinged them with 3 3IN nonrusting door hinges on each side. Then put 2 slide bolts in at either end of the doors in middle where they open, aprox 10IN in from the ends. (This way they can swing up and open completely out of the way and get latched with a hook and eye to the deck poles on either side of the pen when I want it completely open to clean, change water, & redecorate, etc...). When closed they can be latched for safety.

Lastly you are ready to staple the garden wire to the door frame. Don decided it would be stronger to do it from the outside rather than inside if something would decide to come and sit on it. He did an incredably neat precise job. No sharp edges & a perfect staple job.

The box turtles are all happy. You can see the smiles on their faces. And best of all no escapes and no intruders.
GOOD BUILDING!!

Back