Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi all,
I have a Red Eared Slider, he's about 4 years old. My problem is that I don't believe he is getting the proper amount of basking time. I read recently that his spotlight should be on during daytime hours. This is only a problem because I am not home during the day, but my mischevious cats are . I dare not leave a hot spotlight on the screen lid all day, unattended. So, he only gets basking time in the evening, when I'm home.

I realize that this is so unfair to my turt, and have been trying to come up with a solution that is kitty proof to avoid any fire hazards. I live in a one bedroom apartment, so there's no seperating the aquarium from the cats option. Just hoped someone had found a hood that would accomodate a spotlight from the inside somehow, or someone had a similiar situation and how they are dealing with it.

any ideas would be much appreciated.
thanks,
laura

Hi,

I have 2 map turtles along with 4 cats and 5 dogs. Plus, many other furry and non furry kids...my house is a zoo.

My turtle tank is in the floor under the edge of my bar. I don't have any probelms. I hung my basking light above it. My cats don't mess with it. They know it's hot! They learned very quickly not to get around my tanks after a few nose touches or pawing the lights and stuff. They won't get burnt if they were to touch it.
I know this b/c one of my cats is very stubborn. He jumped on top of my reef tank one day and landed right on the lights. He made me mad b/c the tank is acrylic and he scratched it but I was too worried about his feet being burnt b/c those lights are extremely hot. He didn't have any burns anywhere. He doesn't dare jump up there anymore.