General Care Discussion :: Hours of Light

[Evelyn]

Hi All,
I was wondering about the hours of light for the turtles.
If light is over 12 to 14 or even 16 hours per day for many weeks of months, Would this encourage the turtles to breed ?
Is it best to just go with the natural hours of sun light thought out the years. Summer months being the lonest hours of sun light.
I Will be moving my three turtle in the basement were I have my birds and plants. There the lights are on timers, right now the lights are under 12 hours a day. I used to breed Canarie and I have a few pet birds left. I found a kitten in my yard so how I have a cat. The plants had to be move to the basement away from the kitten, some of my plants are old and healthy. Now it looks like a forest in the basement with the birds and the many plants. How I will have a water feature the turtle tanks. I wish I would have a pond for them but not will that bloody court ship stuff going on. I wonder to what extent they would hurt one another.
Evelyn

[missibsu]

Normal lighting follows the sun. If you want to put your turt habitat on timers as well, that would be great.

If you can keep a lid on your habitat, that will solve the problem with the kitten. I have three cats and they have never been a problem.

As for the breeding...if you have females, they will lay eggs regardless. A special nesting area will need to be constructed for her. If you also have a male, you can operate on the theory that the eggs just aren't fertilized and pitch them.

[industrial_girl_2000]

Unfortunately, Missibsu is right, the lay eggs regardless (I know because I went thru this already!).

[pumpkinsherbet]

Normal lighting follows the sun. If you want to put your turt habitat on timers as well, that would be great.

i have questions about this! right now, since it's wintertime, i turn the light on bright and early at 8am and turn it off at 6.30pm. when the weather warms up and we get more daylight outside, i'll be turning it on at 8am and leaving it on 'til 8pm.

...is that okay, or should i leave it on longer?

also, where's the best place to get a cheap timer for that? i tried doing an online search but i must be using bad keywords cuz the only results i get are for a $100 timer and it's not even the right one, or just one of those ringing timers people use for baking.

[industrial_girl_2000]

I just got my light timer from a local ACO/ACE hardware store and it was less than $20. Can't remember the exact price, but I know it was WAY cheaper than $100.

12 hours a day is fine for the light(s) to be on.

[marisa]

Your lighting schedule sounds OK.

About the cheapest timer I've seen is sold at Home Depot for about $4.99 (Intermatic). They're not the most accurate, but they work. They're sold at other places as well. You can sometimes get them even cheaper (Sears had them on sale last week for $3.00). Places like Walmart, K-Mart, etc. will also have other brands that are reasonably priced.

[pumpkinsherbet]

thank you! i went to lowes (don't know why i didn't think of that before!) and got one for $5.

[steve]

I bought 2 for $5 at IKEA. Not the greatest quality, but it works pretty well.

[Starchick]

On the topic, is there such a thing as too much UVB? I had to leave my UVB lamp on for 19 hours one day, and I noticed the next day that he was really swiping at his eyes while basking. Is that enough to exposure to irritate him? In the future, if I know I won't be able to get home for that long, would it be better to just leave it off? (Yeah, I know I could solve all this by getting another timer, but right now I just have the one and I can only plug the basking bulb into it) I'm still curious about the answer, and I thank you for your input!

[marisa]

You have a Reptisun 5.0 tube? If so, I doubt the wiping of the eyes is from too much UVB. If he was just wiping at his eyes when basking, the skin/lids could have just been dried out.

One day without a UVB light won't hurt him (but getting a timer for it when you can would be good).