Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm ordering 3 baby Slider turtles and wanted to know will they need a heat lamp as soon as I get them or could I wait until they're older? Will being without a light have an affect on them?

Yes, you need heat and light regardless of their size. Failure to provide proper heat and light can be a gateway for a wide variety of health problems from vitamin deficiencies to metabolic bone disease.

If you're in a location where weather is warm enough for the turtles, 30 minutes of natural sunlight can provide what a uva/uvb can provide in an entire day, but heat is still neccesary. Often a standard incandesant light bulb can provide adequate basking heat, but uva/uvb is very important. So, if you cannot provide natural sun outdoors for 30 minutes daily, get the proper lights. Your turtles will be happier for it in the end, not to mention healthier.

~L~

What ravenstarr in saving is UVB produces vit. D3 which is how turtle metabolize calcuim so UVB/UVB from a flourscent bulb (reptisun 5.0 is what I use). These aren't cheap 20-30 dollars for a reptisun 5.0 (which need to be replaced every 6 months) and 10 bucks at wal-mart for the fixture and they don't produce heat so you will need a basking light which should be much cheaper. A note that your should think of if kept healthy you RES will grow to about 3'' there first year and need ATLeast a 55 gallon that will maybe last three two-three years (say they are 4.5 '' at two years) the final outcome is three RES being 7-12 inches needed a 200 gallon tank. Be prepared

Why is anybody still using Repti 5.0?
Why not go to the combination heat/UV mercury
bulbs that provide so much more. I switched
to this as soon as I found out about it and
dumped the Repti 5.0 years ago.
Active UV

I just been anal about useing them there risk from exposure that hasn't been reallt studyied, they are alot of money and often die at early ages. Also I read of someone using a uvb meter on them and they didn't even have a higher reading then reptisun to add the only spots that gave higger than 5% was fromt he side meaning that baskign animals didn't get that much uvb? Well I think if anything I'm go with zoomed if I did try haven't heard of the brand that you provided a link to

For one thing, the wattage is too high for most babies! Depending on the size of the animal and the tank, I may need anything from 40 watts to 250 watts, using traditional household bulbs and CHE's. Plus, the do seem awefully fragile, and I don't have the time (which often equates into money) to send them back to the manufacturer and wait for another if it burns out prematurely or breaks. And, if they get too hot, they flicker or go dark until cool.

Katrina