How deep in water will a redfoot go if given the option?

[JenniferinFL]

I've been stuck on bed rest the last couple days, so hubby has been hauling Mr. Tortie to his outside enclosure and back inside in the evening.
Today we had heavy enough rain to temporarily flood the low side of his enclosure. When hubby went out to check on him, he was right in the deepest part with just a little of his carapace and his head out of the water. He moved Mr Tortie to the high end of his enclosure, but he walked right back to the deep part.
His soak bowl only goes about midway up his shell, would he prefer a deeper one?
Are they smart enough not to drown themselves if given a deeper pool?
Would there be any harm in giving him a deeper sloped pool?

 

[Madkins007]

While most Red-foots are not from the actual rain forest, they ARE from high humidity areas with lots of rain, puddles, lakes, streams, and rivers. There are many photos of them swimming, resting in ponds, covered in mud, etc.

As long as the water is not too cold, and they can easily get in and out, I would only be mildly concerned about deep water (as in monitoring the situation), but not too worried.

I will share that I put my young 4"ers in a 20" across plant saucer of water in their outdoor habitat, where I had put rocks to make it easy to get in and out around about 1/4th of the saucer- and watched them work to get out over a side with no rocks just inches away from the rocks themselves. But- both got out on their own on several trials.

I am not sure if that was a sign of youth, a dislike of the rocks, poor trouble shooting, or sheer bullheadedness.

 

[Itort]

This afternoon I watched one of my 3 year olds go into the water feature three or four times. He would walk around with just the top of shell and head above water, get out and grab some food, and then do it again. He seemed to be enjoying it.

 

[Kristina]

Mine do the same thing. I posted pics of my little male sitting almost to the top of his shell in the upper pool of my waterfall, with the water pouring right down on top of him.

I think it was Ed that posted pics of one of his pens that flooded a couple of years ago, and the Redfoots were right in the deepest part of the puddle, with just their heads sticking out. I'll see if I can find the picture.

 

[terryo]

Pio loves to sit in the deepest part of the pond too. When he's in the middle, only his long neck and head stick out with a little bit of his shell. I had river rocks in there so it wouldn't be too deep but I took most of them out now.