General Care Discussion :: 6 month old won't eat, trying to bury

[Yertle'sMom]

I'm new to this forum and am really needing some advice. We have two 6 month old turtles, one RES and one Mississippi Map. They have been super happy, eating well and playing, basking, etc. all summer. We moved them up to a bigger tank last week, and added a UVB light as the days are so much shorter and its now too cold for outside temps. Our RES stopped eating. As far as I know, she has not eaten anything since the move, she is trying to crawl under one of the larger flat rocks on the bottom and is very lethargic. Our water temp is between 75-78 and the basking spot is 92-94, give or take. The water is very clean, they have a heating lamp, and a UVB lamp. Whenever the UVB lamp is on, she hides in the darkest corner of the tank, trying to get under that rock. I have only seen her bask one time in the past week in her new tank, when the UVB was off and just the heat lamp was on. The other turtle is fine, eating, swimming and basking like normal. Any advice is appreciated! Thank you in advance...

[Love of Animals]

What kind of UVB bulb do you have and how close to the basking area is it? If you think it's the UVB bulb, don't turn that one on for now until we rule it out. Just use the heat bulb for now. Won't hurt them for a couple of days.

[steve]

I would also remove any substrate and decorations for now.

[Yertle'sMom]

It's a 26 W Repti Glo 5.0 compact, and it's about 6-8 inches away from the basking area. Should I also remove the large rock(s) she's trying to hide under or leave them? The turtles are about 1 1/2-2" diameter, and the rocks I'm talking about are about 4", just FYI. Thank you!

[steve]

Yes, I would start with those.

[Matryoshka]

Hm, I think it's because the water temp is too cold and they're trying to hibernate, but not exactly sure.

[Jaysea]

Normal hatchling temps are 78-80 ish for water. Might want to bump the water temp up a bit and see if that increases activity.