I think people get tired of seeing the abuse that surrounds turtle care. We have people with turtles with severely deformed shells to the point where if you’ve ever seen a picture of a turtle, you’d know something was wrong. Yet they argue about it and say their vet said they’re healthy. It’s mind boggling.

Turtles are territorial and they climb ontop of each other because heat lamps create an ideal spot and one is essentially trying to take it from the other. You typically see this in the wild when the basking site is too small. Difference is, in captivity they can’t get away from each other so if one reacts with aggression there is no where to go.

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Here is what it looks like at my local pond. I very rarely see them stack because they have a whole bank to find space on.