Hi there. Did you know, box turtle habitat accessories help me feel at home in your home?
Cropped version of photo by Audrey @ Flickr;
licensed under CC BY 2.0

Buying or building a secure, escape-proof box for your box turtles is just the beginning. To make them feel most at home, you’ll want to make it warm, humid, and cozy.

As mentioned in Where Box Turtles Live, you want to try to mimic your pet’s natural habitat as much as possible. And these days there’s a dizzying array of reptile supplies to help you do that.

But what do your box turtles really need? And is there a best way to give it to them?

There’s no one answer to these questions. It depends on a lot of different things:

• The size of your turtles’ habitat.
• Whether they’re living inside or in an outside pen.
• The environment in your home (for indoor habitats).
• Which species of box turtle you have.
• Your box turtles’ preferences (yes, different turtles can have different preferences).

We try to give you some guidelines for choosing and using things like heat lamps, UV lights, water dishes and other habitat accessories.

Of course, these are just recommendations. Your setup may be different and require different supplies. Or your pet may prefer certain bedding or habitat accessories.

We can’t tell you exactly what to do. Just guide you with ideas of what has worked for other box turtle parents. In the end you’ll have to do what works best for you and your boxie.

The good news is, box turtles will be happy in a lot of different set-ups. There are only a few things they absolutely must have (heat and humidity, for example). And you may need to do a little trial and error to get their habitat set up just right. But then maintenance is fairly simple.

Beyond discussing the different items that can help make your boxie happier, we have a section with reviews of various reptile products. We link to some of those reviews on pages discussing those types of items. But you can certainly also browse the review pages for inspiration!

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