Turtle light for a day?

Question

I am going out of town for a day and a half. Would it be better to leave my turtles light on during that time or should i turn it off right before i leave?

Answer 1

Timer is perfect I even have one for my pond on those clody days. Just make sure the have plenty of fish to eat and they will be great.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29035692@N0...

You knew that the bigger the environment the bigger the healthier the turtle. Remember 10 gallons for every inch of turtle. I have used kiddy pools and plastic pond liners from most nurseries and worked great.

Did you know that they need to bask under a reptile light UVA/UVB for 8 to 10 hrs a day for the vitamin D that they need to grow. So that means getting a turtle dock also.

Leave the heater on 75 to 78 degrees always. These turtles in captivity do not hibernate their eating may slow down some but they will not hibernate.

Their water needs to be clean otherwise they get sick easily from dirty water cause they p**p allot.

Total Body length: 5-8" average, up to 12 inches max. Life span: 15-25+ years

Males have the longer front nails and are used in mating. And are considered mature at about 5 yrs old. You can’t start sexing till about  3” across.

You need a good filter system! Gravel larger than they can swallow.

You need to feed them feeder guppies, goldfish or minnows for protein and calcium daily drop 20 or so in the tanks and watch them disappear in a few days! When I got these two 36 yrs ago all we had in back then  were goldfish to feed , so after 36 yrs and still going strong. They can eat goldfish! I spend about 175.00 a month on fish ,goldfish and minnows. An Extra  75.00 on leafy greens and dried cubed tubiflex worms.

This way when they swim for their dinner they get exercise also!

They sleep at the bottom of rivers, streams. lakes or ponds or your tank to avoid predators like coyotes,  foxes, owls, hawks, possums, raccoons and even some wide mouth bass.

TOSS in a bird cuttle bone in the water for calcium. it will dissolve real slow and if they eat it that’s fine!!

They can have garden worms, meal worms, snails, crickets, flies, crayfish small frogs, dragon flies and  anything that moves only as a treat.

They need leafy greens Romaine, Butter lettuce. (Iceberg and cabbage are bad for them, any other leafy greens will do) for vitamin A that they need at least 3 to 4 times a week.

You probably already know that they get sick easily, shell rot, respiratory sickness, lopsided swimming, coughing, blowing bubbles from their nose.

**Swollen cloudy eyes means lacking in Vitamin A. Which we all need for good eyes. Google ‘vegetables with Vitamin A.

Contact the “www.anapsid.org/societies, for a turtle vet /  rescue in your city and state.

I wish you luck.

Answer 2

my sis has a turtle..and she says to keep it on..it wont hurt anything

Answer 3

  I would turn it off if you have a water heater. Just because it would be more botherd by a longer day than it would be by a longer night.

Answer 4

i have had turtles before and i would say keep it on, unless there is a heater in the water itself, then you could probably turn it off!

Answer 5

Leaving it on is better than leaving it off.  If you leave it off, it might start to shut down it's body.  Leaving it on 24hrs isn't the best idea either (idealy they need the day/night cycle) but the vet told me that it's better to leave it on if you don't have a timer.  Most of the lights for my critters have timers now-you can just get the cheaper ones from Walmart or Target instead of the ones designed specifically for pets as long as they can't get wet.