And box turtle. My friend is moving to Utah and she decided that finding these guys a new home would be better for them. (She's moving into a much smaller place) So being a great friend I decided I can foster them. She's found a new home but he can't pick them up until a couple days.

They are coming tomorrow and she is giving me instructions and a care sheet.

I told her that I have never taken care of turtles or tortoises before but I guess I'll get my feet wet!! haha.

Why I decide to do these things is beyond me. haha.

I'm sorry I have no pics, but I can take some tomorrow.

What can I expect from these guys? Any particular website that has clear and concise instructions? I'm talking Russian Tortoise and Box Turtle care for dummies 101. haha. I'm really a newb about these guys and I just don't want to do anything wrong. She trusts me as their "interim" home until the new owner can pick them up from me. :)

I'm just posting to get information from current owners of these creatures. :)

There are a lot of books out there, as well as internet info on them. You'll find they are very easy to care for! The biggest thing being that you'll be changing the box turtle water alot, they poop in it.

Ya....they are pretty low maintanence animals.Food ,fresh water,and a clean living area -they should be fine!Enjoy the babysitting duties!

Boy, the Russian Tortoise is noisy. She keeps trying to get on her hide and she scratches up the newspaper. She is messy too. Already cleaned out the cage today.. LOL....

The box turtle is by my bed and is pretty quiet. She is on sphagnum moss. They are certainly interesting.

Oh, my camera died again. I need to go back and buy rechargeable batteries. Regular batteries are truly a waste of money.

You could put the russian on rabbit pellets, that way it's much easier to clean, stays dry, and if she eats it it's just alfalfa.

You could put the russian on rabbit pellets, that way it's much easier to clean, stays dry, and if she eats it it's just alfalfa.

Oh boy! This is sure a learning experience, but I am kind of enjoying it. If the home falls through I may just keep them. LOL.. My friend knows I'm a sucker.. haha. I am sure my nephews would absolutely love them.

Here are some shots of the cuties.. Box Turtle
http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/4373/p1120289.jpg
http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/3760/p1120288.jpg
http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/7716/p1120297.jpg

Russian Tort:
http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/514/p1120300k.jpg
http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/7281/p1120302l.jpg

And can they eat pinky mice?? The box turtle only eats greens soaked in mice water or something..(from f/t pinky mice) I am going to need to delve more deeply now. Maybe even get a book from the library or something..

The russian you're doing strictly herbivore food, lots of greens (dark leafy) as well as a variety of veggies. The box turtle you can do pinky mice once in awhile, as well as veggies and greens, some worms.. supers, angle, nightcrawlers.

I wouldn't be surprised at all if you ended up keeping them!

The russian you're doing strictly herbivore food, lots of greens (dark leafy) as well as a variety of veggies. The box turtle you can do pinky mice once in awhile, as well as veggies and greens, some worms.. supers, angle, nightcrawlers.

I wouldn't be surprised at all if you ended up keeping them!

Thanks for your help sara. I'm totally new to this but I want to keep them right. Can you tell me the best UVB bulb for the Box Turtle? I am looking through a variety of care sheets for the Box Turtle and than after I will look at more for the Russian. Do you just get the worms from local pet shops? I have never paid attention. One care sheet suggested crickets for the Box Turtle. Is that really correct? And slugs? lol.. Lots of new things to keep me busy for a while.

Box turtle I would go at lest a 5.0 UVB output bulb. You can do either the long flourescent bulb, or one of those coils. The russian I would do a 10.0 uvb output, again, either way on it.

Worms, either local pet shop if they have a good variety, or a bait shop, and yup on the crickets (fun to watch them chase them down, actually) and the slugs as well. I've not done slugs with them, but that's just because I'm not a fan of having to touch them myself, I'm more of a "drown em in a pan of beer out in the garden" type as far as those slimy little things go, haha!

Box turtle I would go at lest a 5.0 UVB output bulb. You can do either the long flourescent bulb, or one of those coils. The russian I would do a 10.0 uvb output, again, either way on it.

Worms, either local pet shop if they have a good variety, or a bait shop, and yup on the crickets (fun to watch them chase them down, actually) and the slugs as well. I've not done slugs with them, but that's just because I'm not a fan of having to touch them myself, I'm more of a "drown em in a pan of beer out in the garden" type as far as those slimy little things go, haha!

Thanks. I'll definitely go and pick up some crickets when I'm out, as well as the things listed on the care sheet. I see the UVB comes in different wattages.. What wattage should I get for each of them? Where would I get slugs? I know as a kid I used to stomp on them, but honestly I do not see slugs anymore..LOL.... I don't like to touch the worms either so I'm not sure how I would fare with slugs.

I realize this is a big commitment and I am trying to take it seriously. The person interested in taking them has not contacted me. I have seen his collection of turtles and tortoises though and if he does than he will be taking them.

I currently have the Box Turtle in a tank by my bed but should I give her more space with a larger tub?

Sorry for all the questions. I've read up and still find myself with more.

Honestly if you can get them outside for a few hours a day that is the best. But other than that the more wattage the better. Also with the florescent bulbs the animals have to be with in 12 inches for them to get any usable UVB. Personally we use the 100w ZooMed power sun bulbs on all of our animals that need UVB. Like the beardies and the redfoot. Flukers makes one too but the ZooMed is guarenteed for 12 mths so if it burns out you send it in the box with a copy of your reciept back to ZooMed and they send you a new one that is also warenteed for 1 year. The best part about them is they give USABLE UVB up to 6 ft away from the bulb. Just make sure that you have the bulb at least 18 inches from the torts. It is sold as a heat and UVB bulb but because of how far away they need to be I also use a ceramic heat emitter. I have our red foot on a "tortoise table" it is 4ft x 2ft with 8in high sides. He is kept on sani-chips although i do like the alfalfa pellets too with the heat and UVB light on one end and a water bowl on the other. He eats springmix, collard greens strawberries, blueberries, kiwi, watermelon, apples and carrots depending on what is on sale that week. He goes outside during the day in a tortoise pen with a hide and water bowl on nice sunny days when the temps are above 80.

I think you will really enjoy the torts. Red foots are my favs with russians coming in a close second. Oh one thing to remember. If you go with the florescent lighting make sure to supplement the food with a high quality calcium with d3 supplement 3 times a week and on the other days you can use calcium with out d3 and 1 time a week a multivitamin with out d3. If you go with the outside time and/or the zoomed powersun bulb do not supplement with d3 more than once a week. At that point you could go with the calcium with out d-3 and the multivitamin with it. The animals will make their own when they are in the sun or under the powersun bulbs and if you supplement with d3 as well you can kill their liver.

Hope this helps. Enjoy those guys they are super rewarding pets!

Honestly if you can get them outside for a few hours a day that is the best. But other than that the more wattage the better. Also with the florescent bulbs the animals have to be with in 12 inches for them to get any usable UVB. Personally we use the 100w ZooMed power sun bulbs on all of our animals that need UVB. Like the beardies and the redfoot. Flukers makes one too but the ZooMed is guarenteed for 12 mths so if it burns out you send it in the box with a copy of your reciept back to ZooMed and they send you a new one that is also warenteed for 1 year. The best part about them is they give USABLE UVB up to 6 ft away from the bulb. Just make sure that you have the bulb at least 18 inches from the torts. It is sold as a heat and UVB bulb but because of how far away they need to be I also use a ceramic heat emitter. I have our red foot on a "tortoise table" it is 4ft x 2ft with 8in high sides. He is kept on sani-chips although i do like the alfalfa pellets too with the heat and UVB light on one end and a water bowl on the other. He eats springmix, collard greens strawberries, blueberries, kiwi, watermelon, apples and carrots depending on what is on sale that week. He goes outside during the day in a tortoise pen with a hide and water bowl on nice sunny days when the temps are above 80.

I think you will really enjoy the torts. Red foots are my favs with russians coming in a close second. Oh one thing to remember. If you go with the florescent lighting make sure to supplement the food with a high quality calcium with d3 supplement 3 times a week and on the other days you can use calcium with out d3 and 1 time a week a multivitamin with out d3. If you go with the outside time and/or the zoomed powersun bulb do not supplement with d3 more than once a week. At that point you could go with the calcium with out d-3 and the multivitamin with it. The animals will make their own when they are in the sun or under the powersun bulbs and if you supplement with d3 as well you can kill their liver.

Hope this helps. Enjoy those guys they are super rewarding pets!

Hi Kelly!
Thanks! I've just read a care sheet on the Russian Tortoise and it is interesting to find that their care is so much different than the Box Turtles is. At first I kept asking my friend which was which but I now I know the difference. The only Torts I took care of were at the pet shop I worked at last year and I really didn't learn much(except for the greens part).

I'll be printing out the care sheets for reference when I go out shopping for them.

Oh, I was able to take them out in the sun for a limited amount of time today. It was a little breezy but I did find the best spots for sun. They seemed to enjoy themselves. It was hard to keep track of them sometimes. Whoever said turtles and torts were slow were lying.. haha. Slow in comparison to other animals but not when you have two out to keep an eye on. They were hardly ever near each other. One wanted to go one way and the other further away. I enjoyed it and some of the neighborhood kids enjoyed seeing them.

These guys are interesting and will take up a ton of time getting their habits squared away.

I really love this forum. It's very helpful!

I feed my boxies home made food balls. I mix up a big batch in a five gallon bucket. I thaw out a pound or 2 of ground venison put that in the bucket, then I take a small frozen (thawed) mixed veggies, a small frozen bag of strawberries and blueberries (thawed) chop both the veggies and fruit in the food processer untill finely diced, throw that in the bucket, then add a pound of reptimin and Wardleys turtle food, then add 3-4 eggs (whole with shell crushed up as a good additional natural source of calcium), stir up and mix well with a big spoon in the bucket, then grab a small handfull make balls about the size of a racketball (little bigger than a golfball) and set the balls on a sheet of wax paper on a cookie sheet or metal pan, then stick them in the freezer for an hour or so, then once they are good and solid take the off the wax paper and put in ziplock bags (2-3 per ziplock bag) then put back in the freezer. That way you can thaw out 1 bag as needed and keep in the fridge and it will last a couple days to a week depending on how many boxies your feeding. I have found this to be a very convenient way to feed and provide relatively fresh and very well balanced nutritional food consistantly, not to mention the turtles go nuts for it, the raw venison is very attractive to them, but if you don't have any venison burger you could sub ground turkey I would guess. Anyway this has worked very well for me for many years, you might try it:dunno: I would say it's safe to call this a bush-league recipe.
True story I gave this recipe to a friend a couple years ago who keeps boxies and also bowhunts deer, he made a big batch and his son came home late one night with the munchies and found these balls in the freezer and thought they were meatballs and cooked them up in the oven, the next morning after he was told they were for the box turtles he was like oh well they were delicious.:lmao:
Good luck with them if you do keep them, and yes as stated by others sunshine does them good, but make sure they have shade options too so you don't bake them and be carefull not to overdo the UV, box turtles bask almost exclusively in gentle morning sun, I rarely see mine out past 10-11am, after that time they burry themselves or hide under plants or soak in the pond in the shade of the cattails, anyway thats been my experience with them. Best of luck they are a joy to watch:cheers:

his son came home late one night with the munchies and found these balls in the freezer and thought they were meatballs and cooked them up in the oven

:lmao::lmao::lmao::lmao:

Hey Jeff, it was a pleasure meeting you at Tinley, wish I wouldn't have been sick that day and we could have hung out more, I have a feeling you and I could have some good laughs together, hopefully next year. We were planning on getting a hotel room and staying the whole weekend hanging out with everyone, but man I just wasn't up to it.

I forgot to mention before that I did not keep them. My friend wanted them to go to a more suitable Turtle and Tortoise home. They have a great home now. :)

Russians are great, I love mine.