redearslider.com

Hello im new here, i didnt really want it but am a new eastern box turtle, sister through her bf out he left him, after looking around the internet reading on here amd such the lil giy, pretty sure hes male red eyes and shell doesnt have that egg dip, uhh he was living in a rubbermaid plastic shoe box for atleast a year, i have him in a 20g tank right now with several inches of soile sum plants and a hide, just wht i had laying around. Set him up with a zoo med 75w basking spot light nice chunk of slate to sit on.
Well now the question hes only about 3" long. I finally got him to eat almost all of a big teaspoon of cat food yesterday
My question is i know im supposed to give him a varied diet i put redleaf lettuce plants in the substrate and sum worms, i just wondered if anyone had a recipe? Like how much food should he be getting? He went several days in my care without eating, and i bet sister didnt feed him the few days he libed alone with her, so i was excstatic he ate at all, should i just put sum. I guess does he need like a cup of food or a teaspoon? And hes small does he need fed once a day or ... Ive never had a box had an alligator snapping turtle for several years till it got to big to too keep, and that one well hed just eat anything wasnt much of an issue mostly ate the kois out of my pond
Also a less important question the little guy has yet to burror or enter his hide the tanks running a little over 80f at the basking spot but hes fairly active wanders around the cage allot, ohh well im gonna offer him sor more food again after he basks for awhile unless i hear different, oh and so i dont get yelled at the 20g is just the biggest container i have and very temporary hope to start a on a turtle tabe soon just watching for signs hes sick or something incase i need that money for that

Hi, welcome to the site. There are only a handful of EBT keepers here, so I don't know when you'll get the responses you need. Here are some links that might be of help:
http://exoticpets.about.com/od/boxturtl ... rnboxt.htm
http://www.tortoise.org/general/boxcare.html
http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/c ... nboxie.htm

Do not hesitate to join some other groups that might help.
Yahoo groups (these are very helpful with box turtles and torts):
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/CTTC ... oise_List/
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/Turt ... ongIsland/

And other online forums:
http://www.turtleforum.com/forum/upload/index.php
http://www.turtletimes.com/forums/

Hope that helps!

thanks, i stumbled across this site in my google searches... seemed like allot of the commenters were knowledgeable

I have a female eastern boxie. I have mine in a 40 gallon breeder tank with a 75 watt heat emitter on one side, and a reptisun UVB bulb running the entire length of the tank. For substrate I use a mixture of eco-earth, repti bark and potting soil without perlite (perlite can hurt them), and then have patches of frog moss. I fed mine mostly nightcrawlers, crickets, slugs and snails for her meat, and then for her fruits and veggies I feed cantalope, strawberries, tomato, banana, apple, red leaf lettuce, kale and then I go out i nthe yard and pick dandelions leafs and flowers. I mix all that up in differnt salads and it works good for me. One thing I noticed you didnt say anything about was the humidity of your cage. boxies like a humid moist environment. I have a reptifogger for mine, but daily mistings with a spray bottle wil lwork. the humidity should be in the 75%-80% range. Alos, provide a water bowl big enough for him to get in and soak. My turt spends half the day in her pool. Hope I was of some help.

RR38 has pretty much summed it up. When I have to keep one inside I also use a heat emitter on one side and a UVB long tube on the other side. Low light, high humidity.