General Care Discussion :: Diving off basking areas

[pinkcadillac]

What are the chances that my RESs could hurt themselves while rushing off the basking platform when i walk into the room?

I wouldnt say that they are afraid of me (I hand feed them, and they allow me to pick them up without fussing) but i guess they feel super vulnerable while basking and run like crazy when i enter the room. They slam into the plexi glass walls of the basking area and occasionally the glass walls of the aquarium. Could they hurt themselves doing this? Anything i can do (besides a bigger tank which they will be getting in a few months) to lessen their chances of getting hurt?

[BullDog]

Ralph used to do that all the time, and he's not too dain bramaged...

That's a natural thing for the turts to do, since they feel most vulnerable out of the water. I don't think they can seriously hurt themselves, unless there's a sharp corner anywhere in their basking area, but it can't feel good . I would recommend just slowly walking into the room when they're basking, and they might even eventually get used to you and not book it off the dock when they see you.

[steve]

It's possible to get an injury and the best thing to do is to reduce the chances of it happening. Cover the sides, carefully enter the room, etc. like BullDog said.

[SpotsMama]

I put a couple of paper stickers on the tank walls around Spot's basking platform so he can see better that there's a wall there - kind of like putting decals on a plate glass window so birds won't fly into it. Spot hasn't run into the walls any more since then. I don't know whether it's because he got smarter or because he can see the wall better with the stickers on it but the stickers don't hurt. You might give it a try.

[BATMANandROBIN]

my turtles always do that too even while swimming lol