Find out How Long Can Turtles Stay out of Water?

Turtles are a semi-aquatic species, this means that they need to spend some time on land to get air in order to survive, but at the same time they can’t stay too much time out of water. In order to find out how long turtles can stay out of the water, I decided to do some research. Here is what I found out.

Turtles can spend between 6 and 12 hours out of the water without getting dehydrated. When turtles are hibernating they can spend between 3 and 6 months out of water. But depending on some factors the amount of time changes drastically.

Some of the most important factors that can influence the amount of time a turtle can spend out of the water are:

• Age
• Temperature
• Humidity

Under the right circumstances, a turtle can spend entire days out of the water, but in other cases, a turtle might not even be able to last 30 minutes. So let’s take a look at those factors and see how and why those factors are so important.

How Age Influences the Amount of Time a Turtle Can Stay out of Water

In short, younger turtles won’t be able to last as much as an adult turtles. While baby and juvenile turtles are fully functional, they are not yet fully developed, so they are not able to store as much water as adult turtles.

If you own a juvenile turtle and it somehow manages to get out of the tank and hide somewhere, don’t worry. He can survive without water for 6 or 8 hours without problem, as long as your house isn’t extremely hot or cold. If you are worried about an adult turtle that got away from its tank and it’s hiding somewhere, he can easily survive without water for at least 12 hours. So don’t worry about this aspect.

Now let’s move to the next factor, temperature.

How Temperature Influences the Amount of Time a Turtle Can Stay out of Water

This factor is pretty obvious, the hotter it is, the smaller the amount of time will be. As we all know water will evaporate a lot faster if the temperature is higher, but this doesn’t only affect the water that is on the turtle, it also affects the water inside the body.

The body of a turtle is between 68% and 74% made out of the water,(excluding the shell), so they are affected by heat almost as much as humans are.

To get a better understanding let me give you an example of how we, humans, are affected by heat. On average the human body is made out of about 60% water. At a temperature of 73 degrees Fahrenheit (23 degrees Celsius) a human can survive without water for about 4 days. At 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius) a human can survive for only 1 or 2 days.

Cold weather won’t affect the amount of time a turtle can spend out of the water as much as hot weather. But it will still affect it to some degree.

The best overall temperature for a turtle is between 75 and 86 degrees Fahrenheit (23.8-30 Celsius). But turtles are overall very hardy animals and can easily adapt to most temperatures at which humans feel comfortable. So you won’t have to worry too much about the temperature of your house, as long as you feel comfortable.

How Humidity Influences the Amount of Time a Turtle Can Stay out of Water

Humidity is the most important factor. So let’s begin by quickly discussing what humidity really is.

Humidity refers to the amount of water that is in the air, so if you are in an area with 100% humidity, it means that you are in an area with fog, or an area where it’s raining, not one filled with water.

For a turtle, high humidity is preferable to allow one, since it will allow them to spend more time out of water.

While there are no studies that show how much humidity influences how long a turtle can survive outside of water, we can easily compare a map that shows the average humidity in the USA, like the one below, and a map that shows where turtles live.

Here is a map that shows the average humidity in the United States.

In green areas, where the humidity is between 70% and 80% you will be able to find a lot more turtle species than yellow and red areas, where the humidity is really low.

So while there are no exact studies done on this aspect, it’s very easy to see that this is a major factor.

If you own a pet turtle you don’t really have to worry about the humidity level, as long as your turtle has access to enough water to live in.

How Turtles Manage to Stay 6 Months Out of Water

Now let’s talk about one of the most impressive feats of a turtle, surviving for months without any kind of water.

Under normal circumstances, turtles aren’t able to resist for a month without water, let alone 6. But when they hibernate, it becomes a completely different story.

When turtles hibernate they enter into a very deep sleep during which they don’t need to eat, drink or breath. So they are basically putting a pause on everything. Most turtles prefer to hibernate in water due to safety reasons, but when this is not possible they will look for other laces, like a tree hollow, a hole in the ground, a pile of leaves, etc. Hibernating underwater is not a necessity, it’s more of a precautionary measure since there are fewer predators underwater.

Animals hibernate during the winter because the cold weather doesn’t allow vegetation to grow, and makes a lot of the animals or insects that they would normally eat, less active. So it’s basically a way for them to take a break until things go back to normal.

Hibernation is a very interesting and complex process, but I won’t enter into too many details in this article, but if you know how turtles manage to survive trapped under ice for entire months, or how they breathe through their butt, you can check out this article: Do Turtles Hibernate?

Why do Turtles Spend so Much Time in Water?

Up until now, we’ve talked about how much turtles can stay out of water. But now, at the end of the article, I think that we should also ask ourselves why do turtles need to spend so much time in the water. After all, they are reptiles, not fish, and they can’t stay that much time underwater, they need air in order to survive.

The answer to this question is simple and complicated at the same time. Turtles need to spend so much time in the water because of the way they evolved. A very long time ago, turtles were land animals, they only needed water to drink, not to live in.

But due to their inability to defend against predators, they started moving in lakes and ponds where there were fewer predators. And after many years of evolution, their bodies adapted to the new environment, so they become more and more reliant on water to survive.

There are a lot of biologists that believe that turtles will eventually transform into a completely aquatic species, and they won’t even need to get out for air at some point. But those are only assumptions.

Final Thoughts

So most turtles are able to spend on average between 6 and 12 hours out of the water but depending on the humidity, the temperature, and the age of the turtle the amount of time can increase or decrease.

If you are a brand new turtle owner, you shouldn’t have to worry about how much your turtle can stay out of the water, as long as it has easy access to the tank from the basking area. Turtles only get out of the water to bask or to look for food. And since you are providing food to your turtle, it will only go out to bask.

When turtles bask they regulate their body temperature, so there is no set amount of time that it will spend basking. When your turtles feel that their body temperature is right, or if they start to feel dehydrated they will return to the water by themselves.

I hope this answers all of your questions about the number of times turtles can spend out of the water, but if you still have some questions left you can always leave a comment in the comment section below and I will answer you as soon as possible.

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