MASSIVE Indoor Box Turtle Habitat

what's up everybody so we're back with another build video let me cut and turn off that loud noise but anyways so we got a three-toed box turtle and it's uh been thriving in a 20 gallon long here for the past I'd say month now and it was in pretty rough condition when we first got it it was only eating you know crackers and tomatoes and that was it had no you know UV light set up you know nothing it was just in a tortoise enclosure which you'll see later on in the video that is not fit for a box turtle So today we're going to be building a bioactive box turtle enclosure for my three-toed buddy and uh here it is first buy a bucket or a uh the biggest container you can find that your local hardware store hardware store I went to Home Depot and got this puppy for 30 bucks so uh yeah put that puppy right underneath and let's fill it up with some uh substrate here I got the It's actually an organic uh soil and mulch blend so I'm just gonna throw this in I'm gonna mix in some uh I forgot peat moss I'm gonna mix it in with that and uh we'll be building hopefully a little water area so we'll get we'll get we'll see what I get set up and I'll show you guys when I'm done so I decided I wanted a pretty big aquatic section in this area we're in this uh tub so that uh I can maybe add some fish or something for him to hunt and he can soak whenever he wants and stuff like that but you know instead of adding the peat moss in this layer I went ahead and added some pea gravel not Pete Moss P gravel okay just want to make that clear um because I wanted you know to keep it loose and not get it so compact uh I wanted the feel the water to flow through here a little easier not much but it it's all throughout this and um what I'm gonna end up doing is pouring another layer of the mulch soil in add the peat moss mix it that in and this side right here and then I'm gonna do a heavy layer of pea gravel and then maybe sand they keep all these uh keep all the soil down and nutrients in because I'll be probably adding some aquatic plants in here as well I went ahead and uh set up the filter put some rocks in there and uh I put a bunch of pea gravel in front of the filter intake and then I topped it off with sand so that uh it locks in all the nutrients and stuff but it can still intake all that water because it's it's pretty thin um I went ahead and uh set up the filter put some rocks in there and uh I put a bunch of pea gravel in front of the filter in tape and then I topped it off with sand so that uh it locks in all the nutrients and stuff but it can still intake all that water because it's it's pretty thin um but then I also you know don't want a lot of this soil leaching into the water I want to keep it out as much as possible um so but what I am gonna end up doing is probably filling this up with a a different type of smooth gravel and then um putting mulch around the border of this so that uh the turtle doesn't have to do with this sand or nothing and it can just kind of just chill in the water area but not really have to swim too much you know um I don't know I just want the box turtle to be able to just chill in the winter and uh during the summer I'll build him a a very cool uh enclosure outside but uh this will do for now I'll show you guys what I um get figured out so I threw some of that pure really smooth peep gravel in um the other pea gravel I threw him was pretty coarse so this is very smooth for the turtle uh you know I'm not gonna scratch them up or nothing and then I also threw in a wood hide for him so you know this is very thick so he can dig wherever he he wants to he can bury himself wherever he wants to but I put this in here so that uh I'm gonna just kind of put some dirt in front of it and see if he just digs into here himself and hides because this would be a good place for him nice and structural especially with the water in here um but then I I did went ahead and got a bunch of plants that I'm gonna put in here some so I got strawberries right there and then I also have some parsley I grabbed uh a couple other things so I'll go ahead and grab those things from the car and show you guys so I'll be planting in this uh tub some strawberry plant I got uh some romaine lettuce uh this one is a parsley plant and also some kale uh and then I think I'm gonna throw some duckweed in the part where he's gonna we're in the Aquatic section um I'm not too sure how deep it's gonna be yet but we're gonna go ahead and fill up the water right now and figure that out because I want him to be able to you know hide in there and soak in it and I'll probably put some Leaf litter in there and such so we'll see how it turns out uh I'm gonna go ahead and fill it up I'll plant these plants and so here's what I've done so far I uh have some red mangrove trees planted in here um I've been having trouble keeping the water in the water area it just comes off into here which is fine with you know it's what I want because you know ultimately it's going to keep the humidity up and then all these plants will just suck in all the water um you know let's cycle through but um for these plants they can't they'll get root rot and I don't want that to happen so uh I need the water to stay in this area a little better so what I went ahead and did is I mixed a good amount like 25 pounds of sand maybe like 20 pounds of sand and with the soil and uh you know push down really hard to make it all tight and you know the the tub or since I'm using a tote it does cave out but that's totally fine I mean it's Hefty Duty it's not like it's gonna you know I hope that it's not gonna break um but since I uh put the sand in uh it's been quite a while and the water level has stayed that um where it's at right now so I'm gonna go ahead and fill a or I'm gonna put some more sand down all around here um go ahead and put some more gravel in and then fill it back up and see how well it works I'll probably end up waiting like 30 minutes before I uh do anything else just to make sure that the water is somewhat stained so before I spread this all out as you can see I put a thick layer of sand under here and then I'm just gonna about to spread out this soil again so that the the turtle can dig all throughout this and not have to worry about running into here or as much I might mix it a little bit into this but uh yeah uh definitely I don't know I hope it works I think I am successful I haven't planted the plants in here yet but uh I put a bunch of pea Moss up in there um and I mean it goes down a few inches all around in there and then uh here's the water it's pretty dirty because I filled it up quite a bit and I'm just letting it sit and see where it settles uh I want to turn on the filter soon and get the waterfall going but uh just gotta wait let's see when uh where the water settles and how it all you know comes together but I'm gonna go ahead and plant the plants right now [Music] I finished the enclosure for the most part I uh need to go buy another lamp for my uh heat bulb that I got I have a full spectrum light right there um to grow all these beautiful plants and you know give them all the UV rays that he needs and uh I think he's really gonna enjoy it being able to swim it is a little murky right now um the filter will cycle it through and get it all going I got uh some really big frog bits and tons of duckweed and then I got a bunch of uh guppy grass up in there right there as you can see so uh yeah it's working out I think it uh looks really cool actually so uh let's go ahead and get the this little little guy in here and you guys let me know in the comments what type of box turtle you think it is because I have no idea but either way he's gonna love his new enclosure so let's go get him this is currently what he's in right now um it's a pretty good enclosure it's just you know for a box turtle that's not you know as you could see you have to do something better um I am looking for my friend really wants to get rid of his desert tortoise so uh I'm thinking about uh helping him out and rescuing a little fella and I might use this for the desert toward this because I mean they only get up to 12 inches and I think this would be good for winter uh let's get this little fella out into his new home using my head right now to do that so this is what he looks like let's just show looks like he's got a little bit of pyramid going on pyramiding and uh all that red that you're seeing on his face that's from him eating tomatoes I'm pretty sure but we're about to see after he takes a little soap let's put him in his new habitat see what he does come over here by the water [Music] [Applause] like what the heck he probably never had nothing like this before [Music] so I might cut yeah I'm gonna end up cutting until yeah starts to move around we'll see what he ends up doing but uh we'll let them settle in right now I hope yeah so I'll I'll get back to you guys when he starts moving around all right so you literally just went from there all the way up and climbed up here he's just exploring I think he likes his new little home I mean I would if I was a box turtle I think this is a pretty cool oh tub what I call this successful it was a place that was soaked with he wants to you know he's got all different elevations he can climb up into here and you know this is I mean I don't know if you can see this but it's well he has to climb all the way up I'm way up over here and that's where he is now oh he's starting to dig a little bit high for me that's so cool I did go ahead and put some water in here that's why I got even warmer here um but that's gonna clear right up see how fast is clearing up I think the waterfall looks pretty cool I actually got this volcanic rock for free off of uh this lady from Facebook um this bin costs you know thirty dollars at Home Depot got all these plants for uh five bucks and uh this guy um around where I live was selling these uh red mangrove trees for just a couple dollars each and uh you know this right here I already had or it came with him um when I rescued him so uh and even the filter that was given to me uh by a lady when I rescued uh her Turtle so you know a lot of this stuff I already had but you know I had to get all the mulch and and the sand and the pean gravel and all that stuff so in total it costs less than a hundred dollars and I think this looks amazing for less than a hundred dollars this new little spot he's gonna love it when he gets a cute ball break there and he can just go up there and bask all day but uh yeah thank you guys for watching and watching me build this uh amazing cheap box turtle enclosure and uh I hope you guys like subscribe turn on that post notifications for future videos and you guys have a good rest of your day thank you [Music]

Channel: Dallin Rogers

Views: 8,817

Keywords: box turtle, three toed box turtle, turtle enclosure, turtle enclosure build, box turtle enclosure build, box turtle build, cheap box turtle, cheap box turtle build, terrarium, box turtle terraium, box turtle paludarium, baby turtles, Box turtle enclosure, Eastern box turtle

Id: 1t8aE7fsZWQ

Length: 16min 11sec (971 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 19 2023