ecs
Hatchling
Posts: 8
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Post by ecs on Nov 14, 2010 9:56:55 GMT
Hi my name's Martin and have just joined the forum. I re-homed five yellow bellied terrapins from Wayne's rescue centre. Wayne is doing a great job and I have had plenty of support from him when needed. I keep the terrapins in one of two ponds (the other is full of Koi and gold fish). I've chosen a Wei-PRO Titanium Pond Heater which includes a Pro-Line thermostat control unit. It is very accurate and means I can keep the terrapins outside all year- which is just as well as I would need a huge tank or several tanks! I'm no expert and still new at this so any advice on keeping terrapins outside all year round would be appreciated. My concern now is that basking is limited. Should I buy a reptile lamp for the winter months or is this unneccessary?
Cheers- Martin.
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Post by wayne020668 on Nov 17, 2010 18:50:38 GMT
hi martin, hope all is going well your end... we here at the rescue centre do cover our pond in the winter months to keep the heat in and offer extra protection from the winter months... we do offer a heat u.v light on the basking island so they can come and go when needed.. we try to keep the larger turtles awake 2 yrs out of three as we find offering them a sleep every three yrs seems to vitalize them, but this just us not proven... to do this we set the temp to around 12c all winter this offers them the protection but the temp to sleep... this yr is our third yr.. if you can cover yours it will help with running costs and keep the heat in... if you can't then leaving open they will surface when it is sunny but returning to the water when they get cold...
regards.... Wayne.
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ecs
Hatchling
Posts: 8
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Post by ecs on Nov 21, 2010 10:39:59 GMT
Hi Wayne,
Thanks for your reply. The only worry is that some of them may not have enough fat reserves to last the winter. I've had to experiment with different foods as they are fussy eaters. I set the heater at 20c thinking they would become active, but only two have. So not sure what to do now.
Martin
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Post by wayne020668 on Nov 21, 2010 14:10:27 GMT
hi martin, if the temp of the water is 20c then you may well find that the others could be at the bottom where its a little warmer... but still active... could you increase the temp to 23c this should enable them to stay active... this year while you can make sure the fat reserves are up... high protein foods such as prawns / shrimps with heads and tails on, bugs, whole fish, meat sticks, cooked chicken should help with this. if you struggle with getting these we can supply from our shop on this site...
regards wayne.
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