Recent content by Sedona

Interesting thread! With an adult male DT we've had success with A Rubbermaid Commercial Products Untouchable Square 23 Gal. Grey Indoor Outdoor Trash Can, available from Home Depot. This was intended to prevent monsoon rains from flooding the burrow FROM BELOW. We dug out a ramp as have...

We have an adopted male adult Sonoran DT that lives in an irrigated space planted with white clover and various high desert perennials, and with hay available. He can self-feed from the planted vegetation and we leave him to do so when out of town, but he obviously prefers dandelion...

To answer my own question, it appears that tortoises can absorb liquid water via the cloaca. [Indeed, some aquatic reptiles can 'breathe' (i.e., take up oxygen and excrete carbon dioxide) via the cloaca.] If so, soaking does place the cloaca in proximity to liquid water irrespective of the...

First, I realize this is a brumation thread, not a soaking thread. Thus, two questions: 1. Is there a soaking thread? 2. I had thought that the skin and shell were largely impervious to liquid water. Other than an opportunity to drink, which our Sonoran desert tortoise seems to ignore when...

Mammals are like cars that can heat the passenger compartment above outside temperature with heat generated by the engine. With few exceptions, reptiles are like cars with a much smaller engine and no heater. They heat up when parked in the sun, and equilibrate with their surroundings at other...

Some physiologists define hibernation as a feature of some small mammals wherein the normal heat production typical of mammals is reduced to achieve a greatly reduced body temperature and hence save the stored energy (and sometimes water) loss associated with normal heat production. Others...

Acknowledged with thanks. WRT other matters in this string: •I have consulted an authority on mammalian hibernation, who tells me that mammalian hibernators often fast prior to hibernation. Unlike in tortoises, mammalian hibernators undergo one or more brief bouts of hibernation before...

I guess I should add to circumstances that distract from feeding in wild reptiles: having just fed. Once their guts are full, they will often refrain from feeding until digestion is partially if not fully complete.

WRT "Wild reptiles DO fast all on their own even when food is available", do you mean even when thermal and other circumstances (I am thinking here, for example, of predator avoidance, female alligators' nest-guarding behavior, and during territorial defense and courtship, which distract from...

Is this Ken Nagy? If so, small world. We retired and moved to Sedona, AZ, in 2021. Since then we adopted a Sonoran Desert Tortoise through AZ Game&Fish's adoption program, came to this site to seek information on a specific question, and seemingly encountered you. Martin Feder

First, I am neither a reptile veterinarian nor familiar with every species. Please do not take my response as a basis for tortoise care. My guess is, in the wild, yes, no, and maybe. In nature, the onset of prolonged inactivity follows cooler temperatures, less opportunity for basking, and...

In re: Brumation vs. Hibernation Dear @Tom and others interested. Thank you for your excellent and comprehensive post. If, as a retired expert on such things, I may make a friendly amendment to your discussion of brumation and hibernation... Most if not all vertebrates and many...