woodsa
New Member
- Joined
- Oct 21, 2015
- Messages
- 4
Firstly, hello!
I've recently taken ownership of our family Greek spur thighed tortoise (this summer) she's been in our family about 60 years. My grandad, probably like most older generation owners have kept her hibernated in the shed in box full of straw. So far she's survived.
Since taking ownership I've been reading about safe modes of hibernating a garden tortoise. I understand that they are not to have food for at least 2-3 weeks prior to hibernation and that a safer way of hibernating is to use two boxes, one insulated and the second filled with a mixture of earth and sand, slightly damp.
My current worry, is that she had stopped eating 4 weeks ago now. She started naturally digging, so I prepped the hibernation box. Unfortunatley the temprature has risen slightly (daytime temp12-14 c) which means she's still awake yet hasn't eaten.
I'm worried that if the temprature doesn't drop and she continues to stay awake, she'll be under-nourished and won't survive hibernation. My question is, at this amount of time without eating; should I get her under a lamp, feed up her for another month and then steadily let her go into hidernation after two weeks of not eating?
Any answers would be gratefully recieved, Thankyou for reading.
I've recently taken ownership of our family Greek spur thighed tortoise (this summer) she's been in our family about 60 years. My grandad, probably like most older generation owners have kept her hibernated in the shed in box full of straw. So far she's survived.
Since taking ownership I've been reading about safe modes of hibernating a garden tortoise. I understand that they are not to have food for at least 2-3 weeks prior to hibernation and that a safer way of hibernating is to use two boxes, one insulated and the second filled with a mixture of earth and sand, slightly damp.
My current worry, is that she had stopped eating 4 weeks ago now. She started naturally digging, so I prepped the hibernation box. Unfortunatley the temprature has risen slightly (daytime temp12-14 c) which means she's still awake yet hasn't eaten.
I'm worried that if the temprature doesn't drop and she continues to stay awake, she'll be under-nourished and won't survive hibernation. My question is, at this amount of time without eating; should I get her under a lamp, feed up her for another month and then steadily let her go into hidernation after two weeks of not eating?
Any answers would be gratefully recieved, Thankyou for reading.