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One question is will my RES (hatchling) bask if my ramp is alittle wet? I'm asking this because he/she doesn't bask often and my filter throws little tiny droplets on the ramp but it's 95% dry. I tried giving he/she privacy by covering 2 sides of the tank with old (clean) t-shirts over it. The other 2 sides are facing a wall. My RES basks in front of people but if too close to the tank he comes to beg for food, so I do give him privacy so he can bask.

My next question is he/she trying to bask because he stays on the edge of the ramp with its shell in the air and his body in the water. The top of the shell dries.

Another question is if my RES is getting enough sleep. When he basks he sometimes closes his eyes or leaves one eye closed, but opens it when I come over.

I bet he or she is going up onto the platform farther when there isn't anyone to watch. They can be very careful about exposing too much. I know my two turtles get all the way up on the platform when we aren't home, camera, but they are quite shady about getting all the way out of the water whn they know we might be lurking around.

They probably are getting up there when you're not around, like Scripta said.

But if they aren't basking enough, the usual reason is that the basking area isn't warm enough. The basking area needs to be at least 10 degrees warmer than the water or they won't be motivated to get up and bask. Are you sure your basking area is warm enough? The only way to tell is by measuring with a thermometer. We can't tell just by feel what the temperature is.

Of course, if the basking area is too hot, that would also discourage them from basking.

On water on the basking area, the turtle needs to be able to get completely dry - top and bottom of his shell - every day to maintain his/her shell health. Is your basking area dry enough for him/her to do this? If not, you may need to shield the drops from the filter in some way.

My turtles won't bask if I just cover the tank so they can't see out. I don't know why. A lot of times I come home and they are basking or if i'm sitting on the couch with the tv off for long enough they will bask in front of me (maybe they don't know i'm there).

like they said above it could be a temperature problem. until i got my temperatures right my turtle would just sit on the end of the dock, but not go up.

The basking temperature is 90.

They will bask regardless if the basking area is a bit wet or not. Their main purpose is to get nice & toasty up there & warm up!

The thing you want to avoid is if the basking area is *below* the level of the water since they won't be able to completely dry off. Drying off helps prevent shell rot.

Don't worry about sleep....he will get plenty of sleep at night when you do. He doesn't have to sleep on the dock, but many turtles like to take little naps up there because, well, it's nice to sit in a warm sunbeam! Cats like it too!

This is my turtle's personal preference - he's not interested in basking if the temperature is only 90 degrees. I have to keep it several degrees higher for him. Some turtles will bask at cooler temperatures and some like it hot.

I have had similar problems, where for a few MONTHS, it seemed, my turts didn't bask. Now, my turts will bask when no one is around, but when I walk in the room, they're off like two shots! So here's my two cents.

Two things I can think of:

1. It sounds like you have a waterfall type filter. I do too. I have a basking area on that side of the tank, and another on the other. They NEVER bask near the filter, always on the other side. They even stack, rather than bask there. So maybe the water drops do bother them? Try moving it to the other side of the tank? Also, with the waterfalls, water evaporates quickly. One day, they have no problem getting on the dock (on the other side, that is). The next day, I can see it's more of a struggle. So those days where he only comes half out... could the water be lower and making it more difficult? Just something to check. As everyone else said, could just be shyness.

2. I got a wire cutter and cut a circle in the top of my screen. Then I placed the heat lamp right above the circle. This definitely brought my temperature enough. You wouldn't think so, since it was just a screen but... definitely increased basking.

3. Make that three things. I tried using cardboard to tape around the basking area. Nuthin'. Finally I brought some fake "hanging vine" plants. I suction cupped them to teh wall above water level, blocking the dock. This seems to make them happy: they can "hide" but can still see "danger" (sadly, that's me!) coming into the room. Withut being able to see, the noise may be too freaky for them.

Again, these are just my thoughts. I could be wrong about all of them!

I have a reptofiler that creates a nice wide waterfall right where the ramp is in the water so it's like a little ripping/current effect, and that is usually right where they bask.