Best Coverage for outdoor hibernating desert Tortoise who is partially exposed

[Momopoubelle]

Hello! My wife and I are new to this website, but the information is fantastic. We've had a female desert tortoise for years, and every winter it digs itself into the ground out back to hibernate. Always picks a dry spot, and often we never know where she goes, until she surfaces every spring! And we get This year I found her mostly burrowed behind a thick hedge of bougainvillea, which provides shelter pretty much. However, I see most of her shell exposed to the air. It's about to get freezing her, should I cover her with anything? she's survived every winter, so we don't want to have ot bring her inside if we can avoid it. She really prefers outside. Perhaps I can cover with surrounding leaves? Timothy Hay? Coco chips? Any advice welcomed. Thank you.

 

[Yvonne G]

Generally they dig down past the frost line. I would assume your area weather is similar to where desert tortoises occur naturally??? How about rain? They really need protection from getting wet during brumation. Does she have a normal shelter in the yard? Maybe you could put her inside the shelter, fill it with dried leaves and block the door so she can't get out??????

 

[Tom]

Hello! My wife and I are new to this website, but the information is fantastic. We've had a female desert tortoise for years, and every winter it digs itself into the ground out back to hibernate. Always picks a dry spot, and often we never know where she goes, until she surfaces every spring! And we get This year I found her mostly burrowed behind a thick hedge of bougainvillea, which provides shelter pretty much. However, I see most of her shell exposed to the air. It's about to get freezing her, should I cover her with anything? she's survived every winter, so we don't want to have ot bring her inside if we can avoid it. She really prefers outside. Perhaps I can cover with surrounding leaves? Timothy Hay? Coco chips? Any advice welcomed. Thank you.

Leaving them outside to fend for themselves is often a death sentence. You need to decide if you want to brunate her, or if you want to keep her up and active all winter. Either is fine, but either needs to be done correctly.

It is my opinion that tortoises that brumate in the wild, should also brumate in our captive care.

Here is the general care sheet and how to correctly house this species. In this care sheet I explain what to do through the year for housing this species. I will also leave a link for how to brumate correctly. Mother Nature is a cruel mistress, and our tortoises need our help to survive her fury.

The Best Way To Raise Any Temperate Species Of Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies and care for adults? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. What is...

tortoiseforum.org

Scroll down to post number 19 for step by step instructions:

Looking for an RT Hibernation "Mentor"

In this thread, @Tom mentioned seeking out a "mentor" who has experience in successfully hibernating Russian tortoises. So I am looking for you! Or any ideas of potential helpful peeps... Thanks! :) A little background: My boyfriend and I are interested in hibernating Steve, our male Russian...

tortoiseforum.org

Questions are welcome.