breeding and what incubator to use?

[Thomas tortoise]

Yes, but after a long lead in process. Its not scary. It is consistent. This is how you regulate the temperature and keep it in the ideal range for the entire brumation period. Leaving them outside subjects them to wild temperature fluctuations in some cases. Sometimes much too warm and sometimes too cold. The fridge is always the correct temperature.

How long do they need to be in the fridge?

 

[biochemnerd808]

All the questions you have are answered in some threads already. Here are a few, but there are many more via the search function.

They go into a bin of coconut coir or clean sterilized dirt, with air holes, in the fridge after proper wind down.

Brumation post week 1: start winding down

For those of you who plan to fridge-brumate (hibernate) your tortoise, I'm going to post wind-down updates here for you to follow along. You may have noticed that your tortoise has stopped eating, and spends a lot of time hiding or even digging down. Even our captive bred Russian tortoises seem...

tortoiseforum.org

Brumation wind-down week 3

Some of you may have been following mu other posts with the wind-down process. Last week, I still soaked the tortoises, and then set them under the light to bask for an hour so they were dried off, but then turned off their lights. They were no longer pooping during their soak, and spent most of...

tortoiseforum.org

Waking your tortoise up from refrigerator brumation

The most important thing here is to avoid shock. You don't want any sudden temperature changes. A brumation should last at least 8 weeks at 37-41°F (3-5°C), but for Russian tortoises can last as long as 4 months, if the tortoises hold a steady weight and don't show any blushing on their...

tortoiseforum.org

 

[Tom]

How long do they need to be in the fridge?

It varies. People tend to brumate younger, smaller tortoises for a shorter time frame. Maybe 8 weeks. Older animals are often left for 12-16 weeks. I go by the current weather when deciding to wake mine. I put them down around the end of November after a month long process. I wake them when we will have a consistent 10 day warm sunny spell in spring. After that, I use their temperature controlled night boxes to keep them up and healthy if we have spring cold spells.