FomTarro
New Member
Hey all! We have an adult Horsfield's tortoise that we're trying to hibernate for the third year in a row. The prior attempts have been short-lived, as she has both times woken up and broke her way out of the box and fridge that we attempted to keep her in after only a few weeks, even at very low temperatures.
This year, however, signs seemed promising: as early as mid-October, she would willingly bury herself and stay put for days at a time, extending to weeks at a time come November. One night, we dug her up and re-buried her into a smaller box of substrate (with airholes and a thermometer inserted). She was content to sleep the night in the box at room temperature, totally buried.
However, shortly after we put her in the fridge, she immediately woke up and became restless, clawing at the sides of the box. We're not sure what to do.
The fridge is currently at 62F, was at one point as low as 55F. My original hypothesis was that it was too cold and she was trying and unable to burrow deeper, but raising the temperature back closer to room temperature hasn't placated her too much either. I've yet to try removing the box and just keeping it at room temperature again to see if she fully calms down, but if it comes to that, it wouldn't really be hibernation...
Anyway, I'm curious if anyone has any insight as to why she suddenly becomes riled up when exposed to colder-than-average temperatures, instead of calming down like one might expect.
This year, however, signs seemed promising: as early as mid-October, she would willingly bury herself and stay put for days at a time, extending to weeks at a time come November. One night, we dug her up and re-buried her into a smaller box of substrate (with airholes and a thermometer inserted). She was content to sleep the night in the box at room temperature, totally buried.
However, shortly after we put her in the fridge, she immediately woke up and became restless, clawing at the sides of the box. We're not sure what to do.
The fridge is currently at 62F, was at one point as low as 55F. My original hypothesis was that it was too cold and she was trying and unable to burrow deeper, but raising the temperature back closer to room temperature hasn't placated her too much either. I've yet to try removing the box and just keeping it at room temperature again to see if she fully calms down, but if it comes to that, it wouldn't really be hibernation...
Anyway, I'm curious if anyone has any insight as to why she suddenly becomes riled up when exposed to colder-than-average temperatures, instead of calming down like one might expect.
