After mating the male rests on the back of the female. Some female box turtles will lay several clutches of eggs a year. Before laying, she digs a shallow nest in loamy or loose soil. She lays three to eight eggs with thin flexible shells at intervals of several minutes and arranges them in the soil with her hind feet, then fills the nest loosely with more leaf litter and lies down on it to compress the soil. Incubation usually takes place over a period of 75 to 90 days, depending on the climate and amount of rainfall.
Box turtles are omnivorous.
They will consume grasses, leaves and fungus, insects, crustaceans, berries, slugs, snails and earthworms. Mature turtles will eat more berries and fruit than juveniles, and sometimes even consume, amphibians, lizards and fish. If they can survive the first few uncertain years, the box turtle has few natural predators. Its lifespan in the wild can extend between 25 and 40 years, and some individuals have been estimated to be more than 100 years old. The biggest threats to adult box turtles are human beings.