I've recently acquired a pair of red cheeked mud turtles. They are great and have shown a lot of breeding behavior. I noticed initially that the female is baking on the land portion at all times. The previous owner did mention this but from his observation it was due to the male being a bit aggressive (as a mating ritual I assume), however I have not noticed any aggression. Over the past two days, the male is always on the land portion as well, and have both dug a shallow burrow. I have attempted to feed them twice since taking possession of them (5 days) and both have refused to eat. Im leaving that up to a) stress from new environment or b) their breeding behavior. They are in a 100 gal stock tank with about a foot of water, water temp at 76. ambient room temp is between 68-70 in my home. The basking area where they seem to have hunkered down is heated 24 hrs with a CHE. Ground temps of the substrate with my temp gun range from a hot spot of 90 to a low of 78 depending on the distance from the CHE. Should my water temp be higher? Is their behavior of burrowing an attempt to get warmer? They are not favoring the hottest spot of the substrate but rather the edges which are only 2 degrees warmer than the water. Is this breeding behavior?
