How to care for a box turtle?

Question

While cleaning up after a storm, we stumbled upon an adult turtle and have decided to keep it. We are almost certain it is an Eastren box turtle since those are most common in our area. We currently have it in a box next to a large bowl of water and have been feeding him lettece. We're taking it to the vet just to make sure he's healthy, but we aren't sure how best to take care of it. What foods should we feed him, is there special food to buy or will regular stuff like vegetables do? Does the turtle need a certain kind of tank? Please help, thanks :)

Answer 1

Forget the "large bowl of water". Give it a shallow dish for drinking, soaking, and (unfortunately) bathroom functions.. Give it as much room to roam as you can.

Food should be a mix. Dog food makes a good basic diet. Supplement it with dark green leafy vegetables. sweet potato. and rare bits of fruit. They love earthworms and like soft-bodied insects and liver too.

Answer 2

Here is a site that has pictures of the different turtles and care sheets, www.austinsturtlepage.com. I have my box turtles in a tank and I feed mine fresh vegs and fruits and mine likes night crawlers.