General Care Discussion :: Cold room at night?

[kikicool]

I may have asked this already... I can't remember.

I have my turts in the office with me. We have a new house and the insulation guys were no good, it seems. So, now the room they are in gets very cold, especially at night. They sleep in the water, but... is there something I should do to keep the basking area extra warm. I have a heat lamp, and they DO bask, but... egads. It's cold in here!

[mikee]

kiki -- Keep in mind turtles have a high sense of survivability and it will never all go away. Leeriness is in their genes. Mine will sit there and just look at me when I walk by their tank. They can sense the sound, light and the normalness of the environment. If I walk into the room with an arm full of laundry such as sheets or a large box they hit the water. In a normal setting if I stop and turn toward the tank they are in the water begging.

Keep the water at the proper temp and the same goes for the basking temp.
If the air is cool you may want to cover it in some way at night. I have one in a cool area and I have the water temp up 1 or 2 degrees. In the past I have had two heaters in a cooler and used two heaters: one was set at 75 and the other at 78. The one set a 75 would only come on when the temp dropped too much..

[marisa]

I have turtles in really cool places and I keep half of the tank covered with plexiglass during the day and at night cover almost all the (stock) tanks with heavy sheets of cardboard. It helps keep in the warmth in the tank and the ambient air in the tank warmer.

[kikicool]

Thank you for putting that into words--the ambient air in the tank, that's what I was worried about. Great idea. I have some cardboard, and will use that to cover them at night. I think the day is okay. I'll keep a thermometer out tomorrow to make sure. Thanks for the suggestion!

[TheComputerGremlin]

You can probably also take a towel or blanket and put it up against the walls of the tank, like a curtain.

[kikicool]

I was thinking of that... is covering the whole tank with a sheet a better option? they'll be warm, and will still get air if the sheet is just a thin cotton one... no?

[TheComputerGremlin]

I think you should leave at least a small gap in the top to allow for full oxygen flow, but other than that, yeah, you could place it over the whole thing, as long as the turtles don't panic too much.

[marisa]

The cardboard I use (about the size of a door cut down) and plexiglass is not directly on the tank, but sits on thin pieces of wood nearly a 1/2 inch high. So there is air exchange from the sides. You could use cloth. Personally, I don't like droopy material, especially if it has to cover a larger tank (and I think the cardboard and plexiglass keep the warmth in better).