Urgent Care :: help! my turtle is not basking.

[joni]

Help! i have two turtles in tank. I believe they are both female because of their nails, i was told. One of them (I call Mel) was basking every minute of every day, REALLY mega basking. the other one (Melanie)would be on top of Mel or next to her but not always. Melanie would stay on "her" side of tank where she stands on the filter and rests her head out of the water. When i turn off the light, mel goes to sleep under his tunnel and she sleeps where she was all day or goes under tunnel too.

NOW....for the last four days, neither one is basking, ever, at all. when i walk by they clamor to eat like usual. Mel then goes under his tunnel. and, melanie doesnt bask either. sometimes i see them swimming around the tank, but then mel is under tunnel. not basking ever. nothing has changed. help, how long can they go without the heat light?

see basking site info below.


How big is your turtle? 2 turtles - one is 7" one is 9" shells.
How long have you had it? 12 years

What is the water temperature? not sure, have a service who cleans and takes care of tank monthly and water is always the same, room temperature.

Are you using a water heater? no
How much water is in there? 50 gallon tank, water line is 11"
Are you using a water conditioner? no
Are you using any filtration? yes

What is the basking temperature? two lamps at the site 100 watt each facing each other.
Is there a basking light? two, one at each end of basking site
Is there a basking platform that is easy to climb on? yes
What kind is it or what is it made out of? plastic stepstool with artifical astroturf on top for them to grab on to and then a log and a big flat rock for them to stand on. they love it.
Is there a UVB light? yes

What have you been trying to feed it? same food as always, reptomin pellets.
When was the last time your turtle ate? today

How big is the tank/pond/enclosure? 50 gallons
Is the tank near a window? no
Is the tank in a room with a lot of activity? yes

Have you read the Basic Care section? yes
Have you searched the forums for similar situations? no

Is there any other unusual activity/symptoms? no, just what i wrote at top.

[marisa]

Welcome to the forum. Is the weather getting warm where you are? If so, what's the temp of the water and basking area? If the water is heating up because of warmer weather, perhaps there isn't a sufficient difference between the water and basking area, which would make them less likely to bask.

They should be in a MUCH bigger tank. (The basking area sounds OK, but it also sounds like it's taking up a fair amount of room in the tank as well.)

[joni]

hi, thanks for answering. house temperature has not changed and water temperature is the same. the basking area really doesnt take up much room because being the shelf is the top of one of those little plastic stepstools with the side cut off to make the entry wider (or the turtle couldnt fit under there) the swimming room is not affected. they can swim in and out of there. i know 50 gallons is nt enough for them but i have no way to have a bigger one and when i tried to put them outside (I bought them a little wading pool so they could be outside for a while, they both freaked). they have been in the 50 gallon tank for about 3 years and seem really happy. my bigger one basked every minute from the time i put the light on, until bedtime and would sometimes stand fully upright with her arms hanging over the edge of the tank and her head resting on the glass, or else flat on the top with all 4 extremities fully extended. the other one would be eithr on top or next to her. now he stays only under his tunnel unless i come over and look in and then he comes out thinking he is going to eat. (Hard for me to call him a her which she is because i named her mel when i got her, thinking it was a boy and "she" has been "he" ever since.

any other suggestions. i have a service that comes once a month and cleans the two filters and the tank. i guess i will call him, but he knows nothing about turtles, just tanks.

thank you again for taking the time to answer me.

joni

[steve]

This page has a lot of in-depth information about basking:

www.redearslider.com/basking.html

[RunninWideOpen]

I noticed that you don't really know what either the basking or the water temps are.....it's really important to monitor those. You can get a nice digital thermometer for $10 at petsmart that you can place on the basking platform for a couple minutes and read the temperature, then dip it in the water for a couple minutes and read the temperature.

Water temp should be around 76F, basking should be 86-90F. They may not be basking if the temps are too close together. I have had 100w bulbs heat output fade before. They were good for a couple weeks, then all of a sudden weren't as hot. Maybe that's happening? The heat is what draws them to the basking platform.

Also, do you have a UVB light? A UVB light won't put out any heat (unless it's an MVB, which are kinda expensive),

[joni]

Hi: I will purchase a thermometer tomorrow and buy 2 new bulbs because i do not know if they are UVB lights. they come in green box and say heat bulbs but i will check. they are 100 watt.

so, i should buy UVB??? today, one of them went up on the platform and held his head way way out towards the light for about 3 minutes and then his head went down flat on the platform (he does sleep like that a lot up there with head way out and down) but he lifts his head up in less than a minute. now that you explain it, i can see where he went up there looking for his heat and held his head way up where he would get the most heat and then laid down but maybe it wasnt warm enough for him. i will check that.

the water is on the platform about 2 inches so i should test the platform heat by holding the thermometer outof the water, but right above it, right?

[octpusgirl8]

I'm not sure i fully understand the basking situation. Do they have a dry area for basking or is it just shallow water? They need to be able to dry off while they bask to prevent shell problems. Also, you do need to get them a UVB light. It will either be a tube flourescent or a compact flourescent (fits in a normal socket). You will need to have heat lamps as well, or you could get a mercury vapor bulb which is a bit more pricey, but it provides both heat and UVB. Make sure you read up on all the info on redearslider.com, it sounds like you have 2 lovely turtles, you want to make sure you're doing everything you can to give them a long and happy life.

[RunninWideOpen]

When you go to get the UVB light, make sure it says UVB 5.0 or 10.0 on it, the people at the petstores often don't know what they're talking about and will hand you a "full spectrum" bulb and tell you it has UVB, but it doesn't. If it doesn't say UVB and give you a rating, it doesn't have enough UVB for your turtle. Also, don't get the UVB bulbs, those don't have enough UVB for your turtle either.

My UVB 5.0 bulb is actually a 26w.

He definitely needs a completely dry place to bask, completely out of the water. They'll eventually develop shell rot if they are unable to completely dry off.

Welcome to the forum by the way!! I didn't know nearly enough about taking care of mine until I found this website and forum.