Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 5:16 am
You don't really need to have lights on at night. Turtles like it to be dark to sleep just like we do. As for the heat, most of them sleep in the water so as long as you have a water heater that keeps the temp where it should be you are ok. Do you have a water heater? For a sick little one you should keep the water heater set at 80 or 82 degrees all the time. When he gets well you can cut back to around 78 degrees.
If the room (air) temperature gets very cool at night in the turtle's room, you can help hold heat in the tank by covering it with towels or a blanket.
Here's a quick overview of the light bulbs you'll need in the daytime:
You need a two bulb setup. Both bulbs should be positioned over the basking platform. Here's a description of the two bulbs:
1. Heat bulb. The purpose of this bulb is to provide the heat over the basking area that will motivate your turtle to get up there and bask. It also aids in digestion. Your Halogen is fine as long as it heats the basking platform to around 88 to 90 degrees. When you have to replace it you can use a regular household incandescent bulb. I think people often use a 75 watt bulb for this purpose.
2. UVB bulb. A turtle needs to be exposed to UVB light so his body can absorb the calcium he eats. Otherwise the calcium goes to waste. He has to have good amounts of calcium of course for his shell and bones. The UVB bulb will be a specialized fluorescent bulb that you get at a pet store or on-line pet supply place. Most people use compact fluorescents although if you have a fixture for it a tube fluorescent is also a good choice. Whatever bulb you get must say on the packaging that it provides at least 5% (or 5.0) UVB. The bulbs that say "full spectrum" or "basking bulb" are not the right type. Any bulb that provides UVB also provides UVA, so you'll have both covered. A good bulb is the Exo Terra Repti Glo 5.0 26 watt compact fluorescent.
SpotsMama
