Hydration: Ensure your turtle has access to clean water. A shallow dish should suffice, but it’s crucial to keep the water clean, as box turtles often defecate in their water. When choosing a light bulb you have to be careful not to confuse UVB light with UVA light. UVA light helps regulate behaviors such as feeding, diurnal movement, mating, and similar activities. And while all those things are good, this is not the kind of light bulb that you want to get for your turtle. Substrate: The substrate you’re using should be appropriate for a box turtle. Coconut coir and sterilized topsoil can work well. This mixture can help maintain humidity and provide a suitable environment for burrowing.

UVB light is a light spectrum of the UV light that plays a very important role in the life of most reptiles, and that also includes turtles. UVB light plays a vital role in the production of Vitamin D3 which is essential for the calcium in the body. When you keep a turtle as a pet you usually want to do your best to replicate some of the conditions that they have in the wild. And in the wild, for a good part of the day, there is little to no light.This way the moon will be able to light the tank in the same way it lights the ponds and lakes where turtles live in the wild. And during the day the sun will provide some extra UVB rays. What to Do If You Can’t Keep Your Turtle in a Naturally Lit Room

For a long time, I also kept my tank in a room that was naturally lit by the sun for most of the day. But unfortunately, I had to move the tank out of that room at some point, so I started looking for the best way to light the tank.UVB Lighting: Box turtles require UVB lighting for proper calcium metabolism and overall health. The bulb you mentioned, labeled as UVA, isn’t providing the essential UVB rays. You should definitely invest in a UVB bulb. The wattage will depend on the size of the enclosure. For a 10-gallon tank, a 5-10% UVB bulb with 13-26 watts should suffice. Make sure it’s a tube-style UVB bulb. But if you want to see your turtle during the night, there are a few types of light that you can leave on, that won’t bother your turtle and won’t affect it in any bad way. Night Light Types You Can Use It’s great to see you making improvements for your box turtle’s enclosure. Here are some considerations regarding lighting and temperature: This does not plug in to the wall, which I like, actually, for safety reasons when leaving it alone in my daughter's room. It is one of the few items we have that I actually don't mind getting batteries for. In any case, it lasts a long time using quality AAA batteries - over a month of nightly use in our case. It is about 12" long by 8" wide by 4" tall. approximate measurements These also come in sea turtle and ladybug variants. One additional cool thing is that the stars are actually patterned as constellations, which project on the ceiling... yes, just like in a planetarium. The device comes with a paper guide explaining which ones they are so you can identify them. Serious astronomy geeks make note: I don't think what projects is an exact scale replica of the night sky, but it is close enough in my view to use as an instructional guide for tiny astronomers-to-be.