How Long Do Baby Turtles Sleep? (+How Much Is Too Much)

Baby turtles are a lot more active than adult turtles, they are full of energy, they like to swim all day long, and they rarely rest. But at some point, they need to stop and sleep in order to regain their energy. But how much do they sleep and how much is too much?

On average baby turtles sleep between 4 and 8 hours per day. If your baby turtle sleeps for longer than this it can be due to: vitamin A deficiency, poor basking conditions, or a cold environment.

Even if 8 hours seems like a lot, at this age turtles grow very fast, and this takes a lot of energy, so they need to sleep a lot to recover. But if your turtles constantly sleep more than 10 hours per day, there might be a problem. But fortunately, they are easy to solve so let’s take a look at them.

How Temperature Affects Sleep

The most important thing about temperature that you should remember is that adults and baby turtles require different temperatures. If you read something about turtle temperatures and the age of the turtle isn’t mentioned, they are most likely referring to adult turtles. On average baby turtles require a temperature that is 5°F warmer than an adult. Now let’s get back to how temperature affects sleep.

Turtles are very sensitive to temperature changes, due to them being cold-blooded animals. This means that they can’t generate their own body heat and have to rely on their environment to warm up.

When the temperature drops the body of a turtle automatically starts preparing to hibernate. Hibernation usually happens at 55°F (13°C) for baby turtles. But it doesn’t have to get that cold for them to start preparing. And one of the first things that they will do is to start sleeping more and be less active.

Here is the temperatures that you should have in the tank depending on the species of your turtle.

So to see if this is the problem check the temperature of the water. If the temperature is close to the values in the table then the problem lies elsewhere, but if the temperature is considerably lower you have to get a water heater.

To be able to control the temperature of the water in the tank you are going to need a water heater, but not any water heater will do. You need a water heater that:

• Has a heat guard – so that your turtle won’t get too close and burn itself
• Is sturdy – turtles tend to break things in their tank, so you need a heater that won’t break easily
• Adjustable temperature – not all heaters are adjustable, so make sure that you get one that is
• Has enough power – turtles need big tanks, and not all heaters are able to heat a turtle tank, as most of them are designed for smaller fish tanks.

If you want a recommendation, here is a link to the tank heater that I’ve been using for the last 5 years: Submersible Aquarium Heater. I don’t have too many things to say about it, it’s a good and reliable heater, it comes with a guard, and you can easily select the temperature, it can heat up a 100-gallon tank, so everything that you want from a heater.

But, the tank is not the only place you should be careful about the temperature, there is also the basking area.

The Basking Area and Sleeping

The basking area has two main roles, the first is to help your turtle regulate its body temperature, and the second is to provide UVB light for your turtle. And to do this it uses two different bulbs.

How to Choose the Best Heat Bulb for Your Turtle

Heat bulls, come with different wattages, 50 watts, 75 watts, 100 watts, and so on. No wattage is better than the other, instead, some wattages are better suited for some tank setups, than others. So let’s figure out what is the best wattage for you.

In order to give an answer that will fit your setup and your turtle, we need to know two things.

The first is what temperature you can expect from a light bulb at certain distances. And second, what turtle species do you have?

Now, let’s start with the first.

Here is a chart that I made showing what temperature you should expect to achieve using different powered light bulbs at certain distances.

To make this chart I used a laser thermometer and the average temperature of the room was 75°Farenheit (24°Celsius), so you might get slightly different results depending on the temperature of your room, but unless the difference is massive the temperature of the basking area should be similar.

As for the bulbs, I’ve been using these bulbs for a few years, but from my experience, all heat bulbs are very similar, so you can use whichever you like the most. But, make sure to avoid mercury vapor bulbs, I will explain shortly why,

Now that you know what temperature to expect from a heat bulb, based on distance and wattage, it’s time to see what temperature you actually need.

Overall most turtles require a similar temperature range, but if you want to get into detail, they are slightly different. And here is a list of the most common pet turtles and their ideal basking area temperatures:

As you can see juvenile turtles, which means younger turtles that can’t be classified as adults, will require a temperauter that is slightly higher than that of an adult, but overall the difference is not that significant.

How to Choose the Best UVB Bulb for Your Turtle

When it comes to choosing UVB bulbs things are a little more complicated due to the huge variety of wattages, in which UVB bulbs can be found. And then there is the fact that most manufacturers have a different rating system, and some of them have no instructions at all.

So, for UVB bulbs, I am going to give you the exact distance for a few bulbs that I’ve used before that come from a reputable manufacturer, and I will provide links to Amazon, where you can get them

And in case you have something between the UVB bulb, like a net, or a grill, you want to move the bulb closer by one inch, as anything in between the turtle and the bulb will reduce the amount of UVB rays.

One more thing to keep in mind is that UVB bulbs will stop producing UVB rays, way before they will stop producing light. On average I would say that a UVB bulb only produces UVB rays for only half of its lifespan. I measured the amount of UVB light produced by the bulbs and noticed that after about 6 months, the amount drops considerably, so I change my light bulbs at around 6 months, and I would advise you to do the same.

And if you want to measure how much UVB light your bulb produces you can use this device. While it’s a little bit expensive, overall it will save you money since you will know exactly when the bulbs run out of UVB light, and it will help your turtle remain healthy. But it’s not a requirement.

At this point, you are probably wondering, isn’t there a bulb that produces both UVB light and heat? Do I really need to have two bulbs, why can’t there be only one that does both things? And the answer is yes, there is a bulb that can do both things, but in my opinion, you should avoid it.

Bulbs That You Should Stay Away From

The bulb that produces both UVB light and heat is called a mercury vapor bulb, and while on paper it sounds like a great way to replace the two bulbs, it has one major flaw, it tends to explode.

Over the years there have been a lot of cases of exploding mercury vapor bulbs, and most of them happened out of a sudden.

So, overall I would recommend you to stay away from them. While not all mercury vapor bulbs will explode, I still don’t believe that the risk is worth it.

How Vitamin A Influences Sleeping

Vitamin A plays a very important role in the life of any turtle, as it’s responsible for the good health of many internal organs. The way vitamin A affects sleep is quite simple. If the internal organs don’t function properly a turtle will sleep more in order to conserve and recover energy. So in this case the excessive sleep is not the problem itself, but a sign that something worst is happening.

The good news is that there are a lot of ways to give your baby turtle vitamin A, even without supplements.

The best sources of vitamin A are vegetables and fish. While there are supplements that contain more vitamin A than any vegetable out there, it’s way healthier for turtles to get their vitamins from their food. But after we cover vegetables we will also have a look at supplements, since they are needed if a turtle has a serious deficiency.

Vegetables With Lots of Vitamin A

Some of the most vitamin A-rich vegetables are

• Sweet potato
• Squash
• Kale
• Collards
• Turnips
• Carrots
• Spinach
• Romaine lettuce

While all vegetables have some vitamin A in them, those are the ones that have the most. But you can’t just give your turtle a lot of those vegetables. While vegetables have a lot of vitamins they also have phosphorus.

Watch Out for Phosphorus

Phosphorus is a mineral that inhibits the absorption of calcium, which we will talk more about in this article in just a few moments. The general idea is that phosphorus is not so great for turtles and it should be avoided. But since all vegetables have some phosphorus in them, you can’t do so completely. So instead you should be looking at the calcium to phosphorus ratio.

Most vegetables have a calcium to phosphorus ratio, this ratio can be 1:1, 2:1, 5:1, 1:2, etc.

A 1:1 ratio means that the amount of calcium is equal, or almost equal to the amount of phosphorus. So a vegetable with this ratio is not that great for tortoises, but it’s not harmful either. But if possible such a vegetable should be avoided.

A 1:2 calcium to phosphorus ratio is bad, there are not many vegetables with this ratio, so don’t worry too much about them. Just remember that if a vegetable has more potassium than calcium you should keep it away from your tortoise.

A 2:1 ratio is great, and this is what you should be aiming for, if the ratio goes higher it’s ok, but ideally this is the ratio that you are looking for.

Here is a list of some of the most common vegetables and their Calcium to Phosphorus ratios:

With the help of this table you should be able to get a general idea of what vegetables you should feed your tortoise. I personally like to feed my tortoise Greenleaf and Redleaf salad, they are not too expensive and he seems to like it. And when I’m cooking something with vegetables I usually cut a couple of smaller pieces and feed them to my tortoise, just to mix things up a little.

Fruits are somewhat similar to vegetables, so they also contain phosphorus and should be eaten by tortoises in moderation. If you want to know which fruits are good for tortoises and which are bad you can check out this article where I discuss this subject in depth: Can Tortoises Eat Fruits? (How Much, How Often + List)

Fish With Lots of Vitamin A

Another great source of vitamin A are live fish.

But again, you have to be very careful with how much fish you give your turtle, and what fish, as some fish can do more harm than good.

I have an entire article dedicated to this subject, in which you can find a well-structured list of which fish you should avoid and which are good for your turtle, and you can find that article right here: Feeder Fish For Turtles (Beginners Guide + List).

Here is a very short list of some of the most common fish that you can find and which ones are good and which should be avoided:

Vitamin A Supplements

In genera,l you don’t want to give your turtle vitamin A supplements unless your vet told you to. 

While having a vitamin deficiency is a bad thing, having too much of it can also be bad. And the only way for a turtle to get too much of a vitamin is through supplements. This is why I don’t recommend giving your turtle vitamin A supplements unless they are prescribed by a veterinary.

And when you get prescribed supplements, the vet will usually tell you which one to get, so I won’t be giving any recommendations for supplements. What I would recommend instead is to make sure that your turtle has a healthy diet that contains all the vitamin A that it needs.

Final Thoughts

So, as I said at the beginning of the article, a baby turtle will sleep on average between 4 and 8 hours. But on some days it might sleep for just 2 hours and another day it might sleep for 10 hours straight.

When it comes to sleeping and turtles you shouldn’t worry unless it’s something that happens regularly. If it happens just for one or two days, it’s perfectly normal.

But if your baby turtle sleeps constantly for more than 8 hours, you can get a little bit worried and check the basking area, and the temperature in the tank and have a look at its diet. If everything seems fine you should go to the vet and see if your turtle has any health problems. It could be just that your turtle likes to sleep a lot, but it could also be something else, so it’s better to have a veterinarian have a look.

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