I have two adult red ear sliders that I rescued from a co worker and they are temporarily in a tank with the water level at about mid way from the top of the tank.There is no basking spot out of the water for them to sit on and I have been wondering if they need to have time to allow themselves to dry completely or are they fine staying in the water...
Do semi aquatic turtles have to have time out of the water?
- Thread starter krichardson
- Start date
They absolutley need the ability to come out of the water. This allows them to thermoregulate among other things. Id go more into detail, but you need less time reading this reply and more time getting that habitat set up properly. Here is a link to a nice vid of what a set up should look like------------http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVt10EdgFZg&feature=related
Yep, all basking turtles should have the choice to come completely out of the water to dry off and bask. Turtles that can't bask are more prone to skin illnesses as well.
krichardson;4998053; said:
Yes, most water turtle species need to be in water to swallow food. Some semi-aquatic species like Wood Turtles can eat food on land without the aid of water. Sometimes my Stinkpots will grab food on land and then run into the water with it. It's pretty funny to watch when I feed them crickets.
Besides the UVB issue, Turtles without a place to haul out can easily drown since they are being forced to swim all day.
