General Care Discussion

I am sure this is a dumb question but... I am expecting my hatchling to arrive Tuesday and want to make sure I am doing it all right... I have a basking light clamp light and a rock ledge basking area. My UVB strip light for the hood is on order. I think the lights are supposed to be on 12 hours and off for 12 hours but will he get too cold overnight? I have the water heater set to 80 degrees. I know- super paranoid goofy question but just want to make sure I don't need one of those red night light type heating lights or anything.... Thanks!!

how do u think the RES in the wild survive? idk if id have my heater at 80 but if u have a water heater in, than u r fine. turtles wont bask at night anyway

That is what my husband says too! But you know how girls are... We gave to spoil things and make sure everything is okay I suppose! :-)

most ppl here spoil their turtles haha

He probably won't be basking at night

I like to have my basking bulbs turn on when the sun comes up and turn off when the sun goes down I use a timer so I won't have to ever worry about turning them on at the correct times.
You can buy one of those purple/red bulbs but it won't be needed. My RES jumps off his basking dock when his light turns off which I think most turtles would do since they don't really bask at night, it's still night with those red/purple bulbs since RES cannot see them.

If it's really cool in the room your turtle is in, you could cover a good portion of the tank at night to help trap the warmth from the water generated by the heater. It will keep the ambient air temp in the tank warmer. As long as the heater is keeping the water temp at a good, constant temp, however, most turtles will stay in the water to sleep.

I turn the UVB light off at night, but my turtle is usually basking under the red heat lamp when I wake up for work in the morning... i thought that was normal :!:

He's up there for the warmth, and that doesn't sound abnormal to me. If you turned off the red heat lamp, he'd be more likely to stay in the water.

So I should turn it off at night? Figured he must like it if he does it every night

He's doing it because it's warm. If the ambient air temp isn't too cool, you could just turn it off.

General Care Discussion :: Silly question about basking and at night...

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