How to Build a Walk-in Turtle Dish

A walk-in turtle dish is an essential feature to include in your pet turtle's habitat. It creates a diverse living space for your turtle and gives it the ability to soak and sunbathe as the turtle would in its natural setting. A walk in turtle-dish is a simple project and gives you a lot of freedom in both design and appearance.

Things You'll Need

  • Shallow turtle dish
  • Aquarium rocks
  • Aquarium bathing rock
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Instructions

    • 1

      Buy a shallow turtle dish -- just how shallow will be determined by the size of your turtle. Get a dish that is deep enough for your turtle to fully submerge itself.

    • 2

      Place the dish in your aquarium or turtle habitat. Use double-sided tape to hold the dish in place after you have determined where you would like to put it. Directly under a heat lamp is usually a good place to locate the dish.

    • 3

      Surround the dish with your aquarium rocks. The rocks are used to raise the floor of the aquarium up to the level of your dish. This turns your water dish into a pool rather than a protruding bowl. You can taper the density of the rocks away from the dish to diversify the terrain of your habitat.

    • 4

      Place the bathing rock in the center of your dish. The top of the bathing rock should rest just above the waterline so that your turtle can soak up the heat the rock absorbs from the heat lamp while also being close to the water.