Changes in your turtle’s body temperature will affect their everyday activities. Being too hot or too cold is not good for these animals. You may be wondering whether your turtles can overheat
This article looks into whether turtles can overheat
Table of Contents
Can turtles overheat:
Turtles love to bask, not only do they love to bask, but basking is crucial for these animals, they need to do this to regulate their body temperature.
While these animals enjoy basking and being in warm conditions you may wonder if these animals can overheat.
Here is what you need to know about it:
Turtles and overheating:
Turtles can and do overheat. Unlike humans and like other reptiles, these animals don’t have sweat glands which would help regulate their body temperature.
Because of this, if they are exposed to too much heat, they will overheat.
These animals can start to overheat if they bask excessively, if they aren’t exposed to enough water, and if they don’t take in enough water and water-rich foods.
Signs of overheating in turtles:
Dehydration: If a turtle is overheating you’ll see signs of dehydration in the animal. Signs of this include sunken eyes, drier skin, loss of skin elasticity, sticky or dry membranes, lethargy, constipation, and flaky skin.
Burrowing: Your overheating turtle may burrow into its substrate. The animals do this because the temperature inches below the surface is usually cooler
What to do about:
Overheating is dangerous for these animals but you can tackle this issue quite easily. Here is what you can do if your turtle is overheating:
Offer more shade:
If your pet is burrowing then it may need access to more shaded areas to relax in to keep it from overheating.
You can offer shaded areas through structures in the enclosure and or vegetation in the enclosure.
Getting your pet’s enclosure out of the sun and into a shaded area should also help with the overheating
Water:
Getting your pet to ingest more water will also be essential if your pet is overheating. You can do this by giving the animal water-rich foods like lettuce, watermelon, and clean water
Enclosure:
Another way to combat your pet overheating would be to mist the turtle’s enclosure, especially when it’s hot out. This will keep the inside of the enclosure cooler and allow the animal to cool down
Also, make sure that your pet’s enclosure is well-ventilated to keep it from getting too hot. Also, make sure that the depth of your pet’s substrate is deep enough so the animal can cool off even more if it needs to
Offering the animal a water body, and making sure that there is an adequate depth in it, will help with overheating. The depth and volume of water will keep the temperature of the water more stable.
When doing this take note that different turtles need different temperatures and humidity tolerances so keep this in mind
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other turtle/tortoise related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: My Turtle Has A Hole In Its Shell, Is My Turtle Underweight?, My Turtle Keeps Scratching His Eyes, My Turtle Is Spitting Up Blood, My Turtle Only Laid One Egg, My Turtle Only Eats Shrimp, My Turtle Only Eats Lettuce, My Turtle Tank Smells Bad, Why Does My Turtle Tank Smell Bad After Cleaning?
