Other Turtle Discussion :: The frozen bottles are out!

[BullDog]

A combination of a hot week and having to keep my door closed to keep various children out, the temp in the tanks was getting warm again.
I topped Frankie's tank up with straight cold water, which brought it down from 80.5 to about 79.5.
Checked Ralph's and it was at about 80.5 too.

Anyhow, couldn't find any large pop bottles, but we had some 2L frozen milk jugs. I stuck them in, and watched the turts reactions.

Ralph of course went after it right away.

"Hmm... I could use some extra calcium in my diet..."


"Lets have a taste then."


"Arg! Brain freeze!"


Then he somehow managed to peel half the the label off - little bugger! Fortunately, it's plasticized, and it came off in one big piece. And I was right there, so he didn't eat any of it.


Frankie, on the other hand, was a bit freaked out by the whole ordeal. I accidentally bumped her with the bottle as I was putting it in, which didn't help.
Anyhow, about the same time Ralph got bored with the jug, Frankie noticed the one in her tank.

"Hmm... Doesn't smell like food..."


"Lets see if I can wedge myself behind it!"


"Well, it's not food, but I still don't trust it!"



The 2L bottles brought the temp down in both tanks about 1 degree, which isn't bad. I scrubbed the bottles, filled them up again and stuck them back in the freezer, so I'll certainly do that again to keep the temps down.

[TheComputerGremlin]

I have a question, since this is my first summer with a turtle. Why does the temps have to be kept so low? I mean, I can understand not boiling them to death, but if it's remaining around the room temperature of around 85 degrees, how is it beneficial to keep the water cooler?

Where RES would be found naturally, the ponds would eventually heat up to higher than 76 degrees. I mean, I can see keeping it cooler for them to be able to cool off, but I'm having a terrible time trying to keep it down and we don't have a lot of space in the freezer for keeping jugs of water frozen. And honestly, since it warmed up, my turtle has been basking a lot more ...

Thanks for any info!

[Daniel3507]

i dont know if i would call room temerature 85 degrees. that would be a pretty warm room

[BullDog]

I was pondering the same thing myself recently, if there are any ill effects of the water being constantly above 80.

I do know that higher temps increase appetite and shedding which isn't desirable.
I just try to keep it below 80 if I can.

[turtlelover818]

cute

[Dein211]

hm i thought higher temps reduced appetite just like lower temps did?
that was a pretty clever idea with the milk jugs, Rolo'd temps are a little highwer than normal since our apartment had like horrible air flow and we only have sucky fans to attempt to cool it down but they haven;t seemed to have bothered her..... wait now that i think about it your theory about higher temps raising apetite might accutlay be why Rolo's begging has been getting horrible. she used to beg but not like how she does now. hm....

[BullDog]

hm i thought higher temps reduced appetite just like lower temps did?
that was a pretty clever idea with the milk jugs, Rolo'd temps are a little highwer than normal since our apartment had like horrible air flow and we only have sucky fans to attempt to cool it down but they haven;t seemed to have bothered her..... wait now that i think about it your theory about higher temps raising apetite might accutlay be why Rolo's begging has been getting horrible. she used to beg but not like how she does now. hm....

Because turtles are cold blooded, their body temperature is the same as the external temperature. Their metabolism is affected by the temperature. So cooler temps slow everything down - metabolism, appetite, even the turtle himself. Warmer temperatures speed everything up, so appetite increases.

[turboturtle8]

good idea!

[TheComputerGremlin]

Yeah, my apartment sucks, really badly, so the room temps run between 75-85 on any given day. We have these itty bitty windows that somehow NEVER have air coming in from them, we have fans all over the place, but it barely accomplishes anything. And our air conditioner is a window air conditioner attached into the wall of our living room. It costs probably around $7 A DAY to keep running, and the cool air doesn't make it beyond the living room ... It's bad, really bad.

Mikey lives in the office, which is good because here in NY the winters are unbearable, and somehow, the office stays a nice 73 degrees or so, which means my water heater doesn't have to work very hard. Our bedroom, on the other hand, which is just 10 feet away from the office, stays a chilly 63 degrees ... I think it has to do with the upstairs and downstairs neighbors and what rooms they heat.

Anyways, I've been trying to keep him cooler, but I'm losing the battle. On the other hand, he's never basked so much, so maybe by the end of summer, I'll get the current scutes shed off!

[marisa]

That's a cute set of pics with the milk jug.

Excessive high temps over time aren't good. It will speed up the metabolism (my turts' appetites seem to increase), can decrease the desire to bask and can cause a lot of shedding.

For me, the bottles have only helped minimally in the past. I'm relying more on fans, partial water changes and in smaller enclosures, gallons of chilled water from the fridge.

In the wild, the surface of a pond (unless it's more of a large puddle) may heat up, but turtles have the option of deeper water, which would be cooler and more shade to help cool off.

[BullDog]

Well, the good news is they're basking as much as ever, and although Frankie is shedding a bit, it's not too bad. Just a few patches of skin. (No scutes yet though!!! :S).

I like the idea of doing the partial water changes, or in my case, a top-up. (About an inch evaporates from Frankie's a week). And, "luckily" for me, the cold water comes out of the tank at a chilly 40-45F, so I don't need to use the fridge

I was surprised how much the cold jugs help though. It did drop each tank about 1 degree, and that's a lot of water!