A few question around my East African Sideneck Turtle?
1. How can I tell if my turtle is a boy or a girl?
2. How long should I keep the heat lamp on (all the time, only nights, or singular days)?
3. How long can it stay out of water?
and 4. How high should the water within the tank be? Should it be above the shell, or is a little below the top of the shell be ok?
Answers: 1. Usually females grow 9-12 inches, and males grow 5-8 inches.
2. These turtle are BIG baskers, the basking and uvb lamp should be on for 12 hours. Set them on a timer so they turn on, and off at a certain time.
3. Again these turtles love to bask so they can bask for hours. But obviously the cistern must be large enough that they have a suitable sized bask area, the tank should be 50-75 gallons, and one third of the surface should have bask platforms on it. But the turtle should never be outside of the tank if that's what you aim. being taken out of their tank, can greatly stress ANY reptile, and obviously turtles.
4. above the shell is resembling 3 inches and that is terrible animal abuse, and extremely cold hearted. The river level should be 2 times the width of your turtle so if your turtle is 6 inches general - 6 x 2 = 12 inches, if your turtle is 4 inches - 4 x 2 = 8, and so on.
