First Time Brumation

[Throttle]

Hello all, I have read all the posts I can find on here about brumation and still have some worries. Our russian tortoise decided she was ready to slow down in later September. We reduced food, kept her waters full, gave baths, etc. In October she started to nest in her indoor enclosure which doesnt get cool enough but we let her start cooling down in there.

With nighttime temps dropping, she has effectively stopped moving so we put her in the container we planned to brumate her in and covered her in the same substrate as in her enclosure - a mix of soil, coco husk, and sand. We did this to cool her off more near a window that gets to 55 (she was at 63F) and this morning, after a night with consistently cool temps, i found her at the top of the substrate looking around.

In other articles it said that means you should keep them up, but the weird thing is she literally didnt move in her enclosure for a week so why, at a cooler temp, did she decide to get up? Do we need to keep her up and under heat now?

This is a huge deal because she is our sons pet (I support him to ensure she gets the proper care) and our dog is 16, on the verge of passing away. She is effectively his emotional support animal in prep for losing our amazing dog who has been with him since birth, so a loss of the tortoise would be catastrophic.

Thank you in advance!

 

[SuzanneZ]

Hello all, I have read all the posts I can find on here about brumation and still have some worries. Our russian tortoise decided she was ready to slow down in later September. We reduced food, kept her waters full, gave baths, etc. In October she started to nest in her indoor enclosure which doesnt get cool enough but we let her start cooling down in there.

With nighttime temps dropping, she has effectively stopped moving so we put her in the container we planned to brumate her in and covered her in the same substrate as in her enclosure - a mix of soil, coco husk, and sand. We did this to cool her off more near a window that gets to 55 (she was at 63F) and this morning, after a night with consistently cool temps, i found her at the top of the substrate looking around.

In other articles it said that means you should keep them up, but the weird thing is she literally didnt move in her enclosure for a week so why, at a cooler temp, did she decide to get up? Do we need to keep her up and under heat now?

This is a huge deal because she is our sons pet (I support him to ensure she gets the proper care) and our dog is 16, on the verge of passing away. She is effectively his emotional support animal in prep for losing our amazing dog who has been with him since birth, so a loss of the tortoise would be catastrophic.

Thank you in advance!

Lot to deal with.

I'm new at this. But I have a young Russian who started to sleep all the time. I didn't want to deal with brumation, so I read and read and did what it said. I lit up his housing, made it toasty warm (I guess like spring), 12 hour lights and around 65 at night. He is much more active, eats piles of food in two or three sessions until he finishes it, burrows about halfway up his shell and sleeps in various places all day. I think he's fine. Others may have other opinions. They'll let you know.

They'll also say get rid of the sand for compaction reasons.

 

[wellington]

First thing you need to do is get rid of all sand. It causes impactions.
@Tom can better advise on what to do next with the brumating

 

[Throttle]

Lot to deal with.

I'm new at this. But I have a young Russian who started to sleep all the time. I didn't want to deal with brumation, so I read and read and did what it said. I lit up his housing, made it toasty warm (I guess like spring), 12 hour lights and around 65 at night. He is much more active, eats piles of food in two or three sessions until he finishes it, burrows about halfway up his shell and sleeps in various places all day. I think he's fine. Others may have other opinions. They'll let you know.

They'll also say get rid of the sand for compaction reasons.

Thank you very much. To confirm I understand correctly, you are suggesting we warm her back up and act like its spring time again? I started to reset her enclosure yesterday in case that is what you are suggesting.


Thank you!

Jason

 

[Throttle]

First thing you need to do is get rid of all sand. It causes impactions.
@Tom can better advise on what to do next with the brumating

Does it matter if the amount of sand is miniscule compared to soil and coco husk? like less than 5:1?

 

[SuzanneZ]

Thank you very much. To confirm I understand correctly, you are suggesting we warm her back up and act like its spring time again? I started to reset her enclosure yesterday in case that is what you are suggesting.


Thank you!

Jason

That's what I'm saying. But please recall, I'm new. I went strictly by what I read in new and old posts on TF. I'm doing it myself and he eats like a madman and sleeps half buried all day. Wakes up, moves a foot, buries up. He seems very content.

 

[SuzanneZ]

That's what I'm saying. But please recall, I'm new. I went strictly by what I read in new and old posts on TF. I'm doing it myself and he eats like a madman and sleeps half buried all day. Wakes up, moves a foot, buries up. He seems very content.

The sand thing is no sand.

 

[Throttle]

Update: she was still awake and looking around today so I went ahead and put her back in the main enclosure, two water dishes, heat lamp is set to 80, rest of the enclosure is 65-75 during the day.

Gave her a soak first too and put some food in jus tin case.

 

[TammyJ]

@Tom

 

[Tom]

@Tom

I’m not able to get to my computer at the moment. Can someone look up “Tom’s Brumation Thread” and link it for Throttle?

 

[TammyJ]

I’m not able to get to my computer at the moment. Can someone look up “Tom’s Brumation Thread” and link it for Throttle?

I am sorry, I tried but I couldn't. Don't know how.

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

Herr we go: https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/toms-brumation-thread.201823/

 

[Throttle]

Sorry for my late reply. As I mentioned earlier, I have truly read every post on here about brumation, including Toms. Nothing spoke directly to the issue we were facing but it seems that our tortoise is cool with being awake now and moves around again, eats well, and sleeps at night.

 

[Tom]

Sorry for my late reply. As I mentioned earlier, I have truly read every post on here about brumation, including Toms. Nothing spoke directly to the issue we were facing but it seems that our tortoise is cool with being awake now and moves around again, eats well, and sleeps at night.

Sometimes even a week or two of just laying there dormant at cooler temps is enough to convince their little minds and bodies that the winter has passed. I've seen @Yvonne G suggest these little "mini hibernations" for some tortoises that just don't want to stay awake, but who people want them to stay awake.

If your tortoise is up and eating and basking, then you can skip the rest of brumation this year if you want to, and then re-evaluate what you want to do next year. I'm glad all is well!

 

[Throttle]

Sometimes even a week or two of just laying there dormant at cooler temps is enough to convince their little minds and bodies that the winter has passed. I've seen @Yvonne G suggest these little "mini hibernations" for some tortoises that just don't want to stay awake, but who people want them to stay awake.

If your tortoise is up and eating and basking, then you can skip the rest of brumation this year if you want to, and then re-evaluate what you want to do next year. I'm glad all is well!

Thank you Tom. it was a very stressful decision but she seems happy now and we will do more prep next year to see if she wants to go into a full brumation.
Do you think it was the correct decision in the end based on what we were seeing her do?



Jason

 

[Tom]

Thank you Tom. it was a very stressful decision but she seems happy now and we will do more prep next year to see if she wants to go into a full brumation.
Do you think it was the correct decision in the end based on what we were seeing her do?



Jason

I would have carried on with the brumation preparations, but that doesn't matter. Neither way of doing it is necessarily right or wrong.

 

[Throttle]

Yes, the one thing I didnt say was we were leaving for vacation and had someone to watch her so I had to make a decision that someone who will come once a day to look in could also follow through with which is why I ended up getting her back awake. very stressful but stoked for this forum