Oh gosh, our winters could almost be considered tropical compared to a Chicago winter LOL It's relieving to hear that it can be done with the proper precautions and enclosure though!
This is exactly what I am wanting to do, thank you! I will be making it as predator-proof as possible, but after Ender's mysterious disappearance last year, we will be locking them both in a night and setting up a camera for when we're out of the house.
I'll just keep our winter routine then, only with smaller enclosures. It definitely has been wonky! We are in the Olympic Rain Shadow, between the Olympics and the Pacific, so we get less rain than the rest of Western WA, and our temperatures can vary greatly for the same reason. Today, for...
That makes sense! So should I plan to bring them inside to a smaller enclosure (I will most likely divide the current enclosure into two) like they're used to, or should I actually brumate them? I have never tried it, and it honestly scares me to put them in a fridge as many others do.
I definitely wouldn't leave them to the elements at all, especially while brumating, but neither has ever shown signs of wanting to brumate either. While we haven't had Potato long, he did the same thing Ender has done every winter, which was burrow into his enclosure's hide for a week or so (~2...
Backstory: We took in Ender ~5yrs ago when a family member could no longer care for him. Sadly, he went missing in August of 2022 and was nowhere to be found. Shortly after we began our search, Potato was found roaming a school parking lot in the next town over. A wonderful family took him in...