Always wants to sleep now - early hibernation attempt?

[Throttle]

Our Russian tortoise did not hibernate this last winter, she wanted to at first then seemed to give up, so she has been awake through the fall and winter and now we are mid summer, she seems to want to go to sleep only. Her eating has decreased, even with her favorite foods, she walks around and then burrows, even after a bath and time spent in the outside garden. Her encloser is 7' x 3.5', has a high end UV light, large heat lamp, multiple plants and grow lights, and she used to chase her food around until about a month ago. Any ideas?

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Hello and welcome!

I don’t suppose you’d mind adding a bit more information? It might help us to advise🙂a photo of your full set up would be great!

What are temperatures in the enclosure like? Ie basking spot?(directly under the bulb) overall day temps? Night temps?

What kind of basking bulb is it you have? Packaging photos are handy!

What kind of uv bulb specifically?

What are you using for substrate and how’s your humidity reading?

How’s their diet been?🙂

Any additional info/photos would be good if you’re able😊

 

[Throttle]

Hello and welcome!

I don’t suppose you’d mind adding a bit more information? It might help us to advise🙂a photo of your full set up would be great!

What are temperatures in the enclosure like? Ie basking spot?(directly under the bulb) overall day temps? Night temps?

What kind of basking bulb is it you have? Packaging photos are handy!

What kind of uv bulb specifically?

What are you using for substrate and how’s your humidity reading?

How’s their diet been?🙂

Any additional info/photos would be good if you’re able😊

I will try to upload photos when I am home again (currently at work).

The enclosure ranges from 75 - 100 with that peak temp being in the direct basking light and the radiant heat around is in the 80's-90s. Its a T5 light from a german company who i can find again when home. The bulb is getting a little old and will be replaced next month when it hits a year in use.

We feed a vast mix of food, shooting primarily for timothy grass, cactus, aloe, dandelion, and other plants that have been approved on tortoise table. We did leave for spring break in March and she got more lettuce than we would feed because it was easier for the caretaker but she ate cactus and other foods after no problem.

Her substrate is a mix of coconut, dirt, and a tiny bit of sand that we mixed in which i learned after was not ideal but for 28 cubic feet of dirt, was not going to empty the entire enclosure to get rid of. She has multiple hiding spots and her food is served on slate and her water dish is terra cotta. The substrate is pretty dry as we live in Wyoming and in summer all moisture evaporates quickly but we give her at least one big bath a week and she gets outside time when shes awake and we are home. She drinks multiple times in her bath and while she was pooping more when eating regularly, I have not seen her poop in a while either which gives a little concern.

Generally she looks healthy, is reactive to touch and checkups (feet are out, shes looking around, eyes are normal color, no goop or abnormalities in any sense), and is active when outside of her enclosure.

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

There are some improvements that could be made, but won't necessary be the root cause of your problem:

• Adult Russian tortoises need an 8 x 4 feet enclosure at minimum
• Timothy grass isn't great Russian tortoise food since Russians aren't actually grass eaters
• Sand isn't good, but you seem to be already addressing it

When you say the substrate is try, does it get dusty? I recommend when you get a new UVB light, that you go for the zoomed or arcadia T5 tubes. They are found to be the best quality.

This article has tips on keeping your tortoise up and preventing brumation: https://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/tortoise-care/overwintering-your-tortoise/

Basically you have to get him convinced that it is still summer. To keep him up provide ambient lighting with some LEDs in the 5000-6500K color range. Set your heat and ambient lighting on a 12 hour on and off schedule with a timer. Keep the day time ambient in the high 70's or 80s and the basking area around 95-100 directly under the bulb. Don't let the night time temp drop below 65. You can use ceramic heat emitters on a thermostat to do that.

You can wake him up every morning to get his day going until he gets adjusted to the timer.

I will tag a few knowledgeable people in case I am missing something @Tom @wellington @Yvonne G

 

[Throttle]

Thank you, we are using Arcadia T-5 right now and i could not remember than name for the life of me. She definitely responded to it when we change to Arcadia last year.

I have been pulling her out of her hiding holes to get her up and in the heat but today, even with the scent of cucumber to entice her to her food, she burrowed under a plant instead of eating. It doesnt get below 70 at night in there and her terra cotta pots where she sleeps mostly seem to keep it a bit warmer in her home.

All lights are on timers - 8am to 8pm.

I will stop feeding grass, we had read it was a suitable food source and the pellets are much easier to keep than fresh food (we rehydrate in warm water first).

We cant unfortunately make her enclosure any larger as we live in an apartment and were given poor information when looking to buy her from the 'specialized' reptile store who said the 2x4 enclosure would be fine and we could feed her lettuce and microgreens every day which we later learned was wrong.

Its the lack of eating that has me most worried, she was eating great for months and just randomly stopped eating as much and not even showing interest many days.