Reptile & Amphibian Forums

does anyone have pictures or can describe a dock that would be easy for a larger turtle to climb onto? 8-9 inches,
I've never once seen this turlte use her dock, i thinik i've had her about 4-5 weeks when i got her she was given to me in a 30 gallon with gravel a whisper filter and a light fixture and they had her for a long time, i wonder if becuase she's apparently never hand land would that factor into her not useing her dock?
she grabs the edge and just hangs there to rest, she also hangs on the filter bar when resting and she will go under the dock and apear to be trying to climb on from there, im thinking i should lower it under water and if she starts sitting on it to rest then i slowly raise every couple days until she's climbing out onto it? any advice would help out and she seems to be shedding alot like she always has what looks like bits of skin hanging off, how long does it normaly take them to shed?
and would those little turtle shaped sulfur blocks do anything for her?

Here is a photo of the turtle dock I built. It is a piece of plywood with needlepoint plastic to climb up on. It just sits in the lip at the top of the tank. I did noticed that when my turtle got bigger, he couldnt climb up, so I heated up a piece of acrylic, bent it to a curve, then screwed it to the plywood. Then I siliconed the needlepoint to the acrylic for traction. Works great.

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iturnrocks.com

Basically, make sure that there is a big enough transition area from in the water to the dock so the turtle can climb up easily. The turtle won't immediately learn to climb it either, it look my turtles over a month to learn to go on the basking dock with ease.

PS. if you change where the dock is and how it's orientated, your slider might have to learn how to climb it all over again.