General Care Discussion :: Turtle Not Basking!

[Anonymoose]

I recenty got a water heater, my turtle recently started eating because of me bumping up the temps to 76 degrees, but he hasn't been basking at all. His basking temps are at 88 degrees. Does anyone know why? He's not in a room of high activity.

[Turtleboy]

is the turtle or the environment it's in new?

[missibsu]

Are you sure he isn't basking when you aren't around. Many turtles won't bask in front of people. If everything is set up correctly and temps are all good, then I don't see why he wouldn't bask. Give him some space and time and see what happens.

[Anonymoose]

My turtle basks, but only on one occurence: One day after I installed the water heater. From then on, he hasn't basked at all. His environment is 'new', since I recently moved his tank from the dining room to another room of lower activity, and I recently added some wallpaper to the back of the tank.

And no, my turtle's actually rather old, he's about seven years old. His tank's pretty smelly and the water's green, would that have anything to do with it?

On a sidenote: Is it okay to have driftwood in the tank? I notice it greens the water up pretty quick, and It's gotten past the stage that it emits out small pieces of sawdust.

[CountryGirl68]

You should try bumping your basking temp a couple of degrees. When I first got my turtle, I had the basking temp at exactly 10 degrees warmer than the water and he wasn't basking much. It turns out he prefers the basking temp to be at 93degrees and his water at 76degrees. That's his comfort temp even though it is much more than 10 degrees warmer than the water. Now, he basks all the time except he still won't do it if we are watching.

I don't know about the driftwood. Is it one that is made for water aquariums?

[Anonymoose]

Well, how would you go about bumping the basking temps? I have my UVB and Heat Lamp right on the wire screen.

My driftwood is this malaysian wood thing, it doesn't float. I picked it up at Big Al's.

[CountryGirl68]

You might need to get a higher wattage heat light ... that would bump the basking temp.