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My turtles doing somthing a little weird... hes binge baskinrg. He spent 0ver 10 years without a basking light/uvb light and a way to climb of the water and when I got them I of course provided all that to him, now hes binging.... for example for two days he never went on his rock, stayed in the water (I know cause I have a video camea and motion sensor set up to tell) then yesterday (Friday December 14, he climbed up there at 2 in the afternoon and has not gotten down since, stayed up all night. Now I havent bothered him since it was recommended that he get lots and lots of UVB rays and to dry out completly in order to bring his shell back to health but hes only about 2 hours away from being on the rock in the lights for 24 hours......

Is he sleeping up there?

My RES has sometimes gotten on the basking area and stayed up there for long periods of time. He sometimes likes to bask in the evening, and I have on occasion kept the basking light on until really late at night. But I do eventually shut it off so he'll go back into the water to sleep.

When I first got him as a hatchling, he hadn't had a proper basking area either and spent the first 5 days just basking, only going into the water when I put him there to eat and get hydrated (he was also ill and I remember leaving the lights on for him for a good part of the night). In the absence of any symptoms, perhaps your turtle is just trying to compensate for not having had the opportunity to bask before...

Mckevin -- Your uvb light is very important, but you did not mention the basking temp. Since he is an adult turtle the water temp should be between 74 and 76 degrees and the basking temp should be about 90 degrees. It the temperature is not warm enough he may be trying to get as much heat he can from the uvb. Fluorescent uvb lights do not give off enough heat.

I have an older RES too, and sometimes she stays on her basking dock all night too (even after I turn the lights off). It's not often that she stays up there all night though (maybe once every 2 months). If it is only once in a while it's no big deal.

Like Mikee said, UVB is only part of the lighting....the other part is UVA which provides heat & warms them up. Do you have any source of UVA lighting for your turt or do you only have UVB?