General Care Discussion :: Do I wake the sleeping turtles?

[Turtlefriend]

My lights for the turtles go off at about 9 an I usually stay up until 11, 12, or sometimes 1 at night. I also leave the enter and exit the room often. Should I just turn on and off the lights like normal and have them sleep and wake up over and over or leave them on so they just stay up? Last night i put a blanket over the tank which allowed them to sleep but the blanket got all wet. What do you do when your turtles are asleep and you need to use the room? I feel kind of bad because they are up til midnight and wake up at like 6 in the morning when the light comes in from the window.

[Kemul]

They'll sleep during daytime too, I think. They'll probably sleep while basking.
I think you don't need to worry. It depends on your turtles' personalities too.
Some will wake up, some just continue sleeping (like mine) when light comes on
or someone comes into the room.

[bradmeisel]

I have the same problem. What I did was put a curtain rod on the front of the top of my tank. I affixed it with a twist tie and a little tape.

I then took a couple of old pillow cases and made curtains by cutting a hole in the double part of the pillowcase to get the rod thru and I cut the pilllowcase so it was one layer thick (doubling the size of the case).

I also did the same thing on one of the short sides (but I never move it and the other short side i taped turtle pictures on. The back is covered with a backing.

This makes a nice way to cover the tank when their lights go off. The top of the tank is open but they still go to sleep when their lights go off and I pull the curtains shut.

I stay up late (12,1,2,3) and this lets them sleep in the same room I am in. I used to just tape pictures and such to the tank but it didn't look to nice and was a bit of a pain.

[SpotsMama]

How big is your tank? Could you put something else other than a blanket over it to shade it - like a cardboard box?

Is there a small lamp in your room that you could use at night instead of a ceiling light? That might be less disturbing to your little turtles. My turtle's tank is in the den where we spend most of our time. When his tank lights are on, we use a ceiling light and a lamp for our lighting. When his tank lights go off, I turning off the ceiling light and put the lamp on the low setting. That leaves Spot's tank mostly in shadow and he seems to sleep pretty well light that.

[bradmeisel]

SPotsMama -- very good point about the over head lights. I do the same thing when I put my turtles to sleep.

[Arisu]

hmm I feel yalls' pain. I have 2 turtles for roommates and they ONLY sleep when the room is almost completely dark. when I'm up @ weird hours and I really need to be in my room, I use a dim table lamp. if that doesn't work out, I move my activities to another room.

although I'm sure your turtle doesn't mind the disturbance TOO much, the consistency of inconsistency (sorry, haha, for lack of better word choice) will probably catch up to your turtle. I mean true, they could nap during the day or while basking, but a good nights rest, I feel, is important to every living thing (cept for nocturnals- they have good day rests)! I think if I were a turtle and I'm not given the chance to sleep when I'm supposed to, I'd be one cranky turtle.

[Turtlefriend]

Alright, so it doesnt seem like the biggest deal. My turtles are like Arisu's, they have to have almost complete darkness to sleep. My tank is 40 gallons so I think I can think of a way to cover it up easier. I do use my desk lamp late at night but sometimes I cant work at the desk.

[joeybsmooth]

I have a log that is almost always dark inside .So if they want to sleep all they have to do is go in there.

But normally I don't use the over head light just in case .

[Dein211]

rolo will sleep with or withouth the lights so i just stopped worrying. if the light bothered her she jsut swam under her dock where its completely dark. even witht he ceiling light he tank is still mostly shadowed but thats becasue she has a plastic one i think so that helps.

[SpenceMasta]

i have a decent sized plastic garbage can i keep inside my tank as a cave, whenever the turtle sleeps she just goes inside it where it is completely dark

[marisa]

Turtlefriend, rather than just putting a blanket over the tank, place something rigid over the tank and then put the blanket on that (if you have something lighter than a blanket but big enough to cover the area you want, that would be even better). I use a sheet of cardboard over my stock tanks to block out the light.

[mikee]

Sleeping?? I have several and they have to adjust their lives around me and not the other way around. They are reptiles and will adjust to most anything. You can run yourself silly or let them adjust. All they want is food, clean water, proper temps on water and basking and that is all. Your and or their sleeping habits, are way down on the list. m.

[nickyds23]

I have one of those metal screen covers that I just put over the top of the tank and then place the blanket over that and the rest of the tank.
It seems to work pretty well but I don't think they understand the idea of sleeping as I can hear them knocking around sometimes.

[VanishingReality]

I just put a beach towel over my tank and he sleeps though the night, when he wants to that is. If there is any light at all it wakes him up and he won't sleep the rest of the night. The towel seems to calm him as well so we don't wake up at night to him destroying things.

[bradmeisel]

I like keeping the top open because I sneak up on them when they are sleeping and I think they are soo cute when they are asleep.

With the curtains, they will sleep almost anywhere in the tank because they feel safe. When I used to not use the curtains, they always slept in the same spots that were partial hiding places.

I stay up late and my turtles still sleep, but I do try to keep the overheads off because like SpotsMama said it seems to wake them up.