General Care Discussion :: was that scratching?

[my_manuelita_turtle]

My turtle was on the ramp of the basking area, but she was on the part that is underwater. She likes to be submerged a lot, dont know why. Then I saw that she was like beating her head with her front legs. The tmperature right now is at 82. She doesnt seem to be sheding.

[Bumby's Mom]

What temperature is 82? The water? The basking? The air? If the water is 82 and your turtle is NOT sick then that is way too high. If the basking is only 82 then that is way too low.

[my_manuelita_turtle]

the water is 82, I already lowered the thermostat. The basking area must the a little bit high, like 85 or 86.

[SpotsMama]

For a little turtle, water temp should be around 78 degrees fahrenheit but not over 80. For a grown turtle 75 degree water temp is fine.

Basking temperature should be around 90 degrees. The purpose of warming up the basking area is to motivate your turtle to get up and bask. They are natural born heat seekers. If the basking area isn't warm enough they will just stay in the water, where they will eventually develop shell infections.

[my_manuelita_turtle]

ok, I have an exoterra UVA Sun Glo Neodymium 15W, I had one more too, but the light was to strong and I noticed that my turtle, is the lamp was on the left side when she was basking she had the left eye closed, and the same if it was on the right side, so I turned that lamp off (it was a regular incandescent lamp. So I only left the Exoterra lamp, that doesnt emit as much heat as the other one, but the light is more soft and she doesnt close one eye. Is that 15Watt to low?

[SpotsMama]

You need two bulbs - one for UVB and one for heat. The bulb you have provides neither. Here's a short description of the two bulbs you need and there's more info on the link below:

Both bulbs should be positioned over the basking platform.

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. A regular household incandescent bulb is fine as long as it heats the basking platform to around 88 to 90 degrees. 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.

Here's more explanation of the lighting requirements:

http://www.redearslider.com/index_lighting_basking.html