General Care Discussion

Both of my turtles used to bask often. The smaller one, Jager, used to bask almost all day long. But in the last week, they don't bask as much as they used to. They just kind of hang off the edge of the basking area with only their front halves out of the water. Why the sudden change? Could it have to do with temperature?

Also:
I ordered them a new, bigger basking area. This: http://www.reptiledirect.com/reptology- ... ledge.aspx
So when that comes in I can raise their water level and stuff.
But not by too much cos they still have a really hard time swimming in water over like four inches deep. They're not good at swimming up to the water's surface to get air. Has anyone else had this issue with hatchlings? I was under the impression RES were really good at swimming even when they're babies.

when born in captivity most breeders that dont care will put them into a shallow bowl and throw a price tag on the turtle, so they wont get a chance to learn. it could be somethign to do with the temp or if u changed their setup recently

yeah I got them from Chinatown. They were in a tiny tuperwear container. They could barely even swim in shallow water for a couple weeks and I had to pick them up and put them on the basking spot to show them that they could go out of the water. I'm working on getting them used to deeper and deeper water, but it's been a slow process.

I haven't changed the set up, but the weather has gotten chilly. The heater keeps their bin all nice and toasty, but it might have dropped a couple degrees.

what is the water and basking temps? and yea just keep slowly rasing the water

Right now the water is around 78-80 and the basking area is about 85 cos it's night time and i don't have both lights on. but that usually about what it is. altho the water is usually a few degrees cooler when i do a water change. the water level is only around two inches (they struggle so bad when they can't touch the bottom of the bin) so i change it daily, sometimes twice a day.

When I get the new basking place prolly in a couple weeks, it'll go up to around 3.5 inches.

85 is a bit low considering the water is 78-80. What kind of heat bulb do you have?

I have a infrared red heat bulb. I'm pretty sure it's 60 watts.

Is there a lot of activity in front of them, like people walking in front of them? If so, I would think that they are looking to beg for some food.

you could always switch to a normal 75 watt house hold bulb, that should increase your basking temp

i only live with one other person, and sometimes we have a guest, but thats about it. they don't really see too many people.

The 75 watt house bulb should do the trick.

General Care Discussion :: My turtles aren't basking as much as they used to?

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