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Hi. I have 2 RES, one female, about 3yrs old, and one male, about 1yr. I have a 40 gallon breeder, and I just recently built an out of tank basking platform, so I could fill the tank up all the way, and give them more room to bask together. Previously, I had a floating XL basker, but they were barely fitting on it together, and my female, (Rita) was trying to climb out, so I had to lower the water, hence the out of tank basker. Its fabulous, and now they have so much room to swim, but my male, (Franklin) wont go up there to bask. Its been over a week. He seems happy and healthy, but I cant figure out why he wont go up on the basker. I've put him up there, and he'll stay for a minute, but then he runs down. I've checked the temperature, its perfect for basking, and the ramp is easily accessible. Whats up with him? Anyone?

A lot of RES seem resistant to change. I had the same issue when I made my ATBA. What I did was put the old floating platform on the ATBA. She started using it, and eventually, I removed the old platform.

I recently built an ATBA as well and neither one of my turtles touched it for about 3 days. The female recently got on hers for the first time today (day 4) and the male hasn't touched his yet. I think the males are a little more skittish (at least mine is).

In between writing this I bribed my male with food, he ran up the ramp grabbed the food and dove off. At least now I know he can go up there, they just always do it on their time. Maybe try bribing him?

Maybe he's seeing movement around the room -- turtles get easily spooked sometimes. How's your ATBA like? Have you tried covering the sides so that he can't see what's going on around the room (it may not be aesthetically appealing, but if you can get him to stay up the ATBA at extended periods, then it's worth a shot, right?)