Habitat - Indoor :: rock for basking?

[torty1]

Can I get a flat rock from outdoors, boil it and use that for basking spot?

I am a new turtle owner. I have 2 babies that are about 2 inches long. I never catch them basking. Using the advice I'm finding here, I am getting them a new tank, light etc this weekend. But I was wondering if a rock that I boiled would be save for them. Or does using a natural rock just make the water dirty more quickly?

[steve]

certain rocks are ok, some are not. how big is your tank?

search the forum, there are several people who have used found rocks. i am currently using ceramic tiles.

[torty1]

My tank is more like a plastic dish that was sold to us with the turtles. It is only 12 inches long and 3 inches deep with a raised part in the middle. I never see them on it so I've been taking them out to sit in a dry container for about an hour when I change their water. Turtle extreme home makeover is my weekend project. I was just wondering if I could use a smaller rock for them to climb up on that they might like better than the raised portion that is there.

[cam722]

Welcome to Tutle Talk

You really really need to be careful with taking your turtles out in direct sunlight with no water and no shaded area. It's good for them to get direct sunlight but you need to offer them a place to cool off also.

I've used rocks I've found outside for their basking area in the past, now that they've outgrown the smaller enclosure I had upgraded the basking area also. One thing to remember is use a rock that doesn't heat up a lot or they can burn their carapace. Also when using piles of rocks in a tank, you REALLY need to be careful about them pulling it over, yours may be little now but just be careful. Piles of rock also take up valuable swimming room.. and they LOVE to swim.

Congrats on upgrading him from the death bowl. Again, Welcome.

[daredevilgirl013]

I use rocks from outside but you gotta get a really big one if you have a big tank and mine's only five gallons and I just bought a turtle dock instead. That way he can just crawl up it and tahdah. I do have one rock from outside in his tank but it doesn't go up past the water. I just use it for decoration and to help hold the dock down incase the suction cups happen to stop working.

I would suggest a dock or getting something they can hide around or under cause now mine loves to just hide under the dock and swim around.

[JessicaTS]

Iwould also suggest a dock, mainly because piling rocks into a dock limits even more swimming space and it is a tougher job to build it all up and bring it back down to clean. If you plan on getting smaller rocks, they should at least be bigger than the turtles' head