Habitat - Indoor :: too young to bask?

[Pluckt007]

hola, my nameless 2inch turtle has a hokey-dokey full spectum blue light and a desk light on top of his tank. he basks rarley. some have told me he is too young to bask. ive seen him...once...but i seen him. anways, the blue light isnt good, so switch to the compact floros that only provide uvb rays. i guess? i want to encourage him to bask, i need him to bask. or he dies.....cuz then what am i supposed to do with 15 lbs. of polished river rocks?

[Safdar]

Your turtles should be basking alot, baby turtles that are supersmall bask. Does the blue light emmit heat, What is the temp of the basking area?. You can use a regular house bulb for the heat, but you do need the compact fluerescent bulb with UVB rays.

[Tenodera]

Don't worry, he won't die of not basking. Did you just recently get him? He's probably still shy if you did.

How warm is his basking place? they won't go up if it's too cold. And there is NO age limit to basking. Newborns bask, too!:D

What do you use as a basking dock? Maybe it's hard for him to get up on.

[SpotsMama]

Someone else on here just hatched a couple of little turtles and they were basking just like grown turtles within two or three days, so being young doesn't keep them from basking at all. On the other hand, being new and nervous will keep them from basking. The most common reason that they don't bask is that the basking area isn't warm enough to motivate them to bask. It needs to be 88 or 90 degrees warm compared to water that's 78 or 80 degrees.

And yes, they need their UVB for sure, especially when they're young and trying to grow bones and shell. They also needs lots of calcium.

[Pluckt007]

aight...cool. muchas gracias

[untsmurf]

What are the temps of your basking area and water?

[marisa]

The need to bask for warmth is instinctive.

[oobie58]

that happened to my turtle and he was also a 2", still is. Now every time I sit down by his tank, he climbs up and basks but most of the time he climbs up and begs for food. He will bask when he is comfortable with his surroundings.

[Bumby's Mom]

Mine are only 3 weeks old and they bask regularly. They even "super bask." I can tell you that they do enjoy it more when it is warmer. For instance, the other day it was only 86-88 degrees on the basking dock so they were just swimming around, I turned on their heat lamp which made it 93 and they both crawled up there and started super basking. My adult is the same way, she loves it when it is around 95.

[SpotsMama]

Yes - my turtle likes it in the low 90's. Some turtles like it cooler, some warmer. It seems like different turtles have different preferences for basking temp. The perfect temp for a turt is his sweet spot. You should experiment to find your turtle's sweet spot.

[Sukrita]

What is "super basking"?

[N4784N R4613]

It is when they stick there back feet(and sometimes there front feet too.) waaaay out, to get as much heat as possible.

Here is Spot demonstrating...

[untsmurf]

Spot is the coolest!

[Tenodera]

That's a BEAUTIFUL picture! I love his pose and the flowers in the water and it all looks SUPER natural.

[steve]

He's just asking for a chin rub!