Reptile heat for rescued turtles- need a bit of advice.

Due to the flooding in our area, I have suddenly become a rescue operation for various turtles and tortoises. Good news is they are safe here, bad news is the shop they came from was a dump and has thankfully succumbed to the flood waters and will not be re-opening. The Humane Society called me up to handle them for them as they are most literally swamped with flood displaced pets. (Thankfully, most of them will be rehomed over the next few weeks. I like turtles and tortoises, but not this much! Also, Po-dog has decided he likes to snuggle with this 75 pound tortoise.)

My experience with reptiles is limited to snakes, lizards and chameleons. The good news is I have plenty of indoor and outdoor space (and enclosures).

My big conundrum right now is the three dozen painted and map turtle juveniles I have taken in. These guys are dangerously small. I cannot put them in the outdoor enclosure I have set up for the adults as the raccoon, skunk, and opossum population around my home has increased tremendously due to the high river and these little ones are perfect snack size.

Anyway, I have the little guys set up in a well equipped kiddie pool and all are doing well. The issue is heat. My critter rooms are a bit on the cool side, and I am worried about providing basking heat for them. I have metal halide lighting, but It is currently set to light the room full of reptiles and does not provide much radiant heat. I do have a few small infrared type ceramic heaters, but am uncertain if these are suitable for turtles. (I have them from when my chickens were yellow fuzzies!)

Are these suitable, or should I break out the portable room heater and just heat the room instead? There is about ten adults in tanks here, all being treated for injuries. I have enough ceramic heaters to suffice for hospital tanks and the little ones, but I suspect it may be wiser to just heat that room. Or,is there a better way?


Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

With our Red Eared Slider, we keep her water temperature around 78 degrees and she seems plenty happy with that. As far as basking heat we usually keep her basking area around 90 to 95 degrees. The big thing is to make sure they can get out of the water and bask, it helps with digestion I'm not sure how long your going to keep them but a UVA/UVB lamp helps with shell growth. The kiddie pool idea is a sound one, I wouldn't worry about the depth if it has a large foot print especially if it is only temporary. As long as they can fully submerge they should be fine. They can and will eat their own poop so keep an eye out for that (ours spends hours digging through her rocks even though she is well fed). Feeder fish can be used, but after an incident that ended with the death of our adult Male RES, I would quarantine them.

I hope that helps, feel free to ask if you have anymore questions, I may have given you more than you needed I'm not sure.

And FYI they do sleep underwater, I had no idea of this the first time I saw our male doing it and thought he was dead.....my girlfriend made fun of me for a week.

As far as tortises I have no clue, I want one though...

For info go here, Turtle Forum

hope it helps.
Sam:happy:

How cool is their water temperature without heating? I don't think those species really need to be kept warm. I care for an RES that is typically around 60F all winter. They will eat better if they are warmer, but is that an issue? These species are from temperate climates, not the tropics. On a short-term basis, I wouldn't worry about either heating or lighting. If you can take them outdoors for a sunbath every couple of days, that would be beneficial. Just be sure to set up a reminder system for yourself so that they don't stay out in the sun too long and cook (this happened to someone I know).

Disclaimer: I am not a turtle expert, so I am working from limited experience.