RatQueen_Irene
Active Member
Hello! I'm hoping to double check my plan and research with people familiar with brumation of eastern hermanns and similar.
My eastern hermann tortoise Kepler is around a year and four months old, approximately 4.8-5 inches long in the shell, and 462 grams (giving heavier Jackson ratio of around 0.22-3). He's been slowing down, and not eating as much as in summer, and it seems he might be ready.
Last winter around now, I set up a ceramic heat emitter and kept him from brumation, because he was too young. I suspect he grew fast as a result, and rivals the size of some folk's 3-4 year old tortoises. I know his age is right, I raised him from hatching, and his diet is as recommended here with primarily weeds, hibiscus leaves and flowers, some supplementation with mazuri and dark leaf romaine, with cuttlebone blocks available and once weekly calcium dusting. For his health this winter, I am planning to enter him into brumation.
I was going to stop feeding him today for three weeks, continue morning warm soaks, and abstain from adding a ceramic heat emitter to keep temps up at night, leaving only his basking lamp for the day that's around 85-90 currently at shell height due to colder house temps of around 50-65 F depending on day. I was going to restrict daylight to 8 hours instead of 12 hours potentially as well, matching how it is outside.
I'm calibrating my large fridge to have consistent temps, at approximately 40-45 degrees F. I have a continuous digital thermometer that can alert me if temps ever rise or fall too far. Is that the correct temperature for Hermanns?
I was then going to fill a cardboard box with a bit of plastic liner for the bottom and sides, and bury him in the fridge under around 1.5 inches of slightly moisturized but not wet coco coir with more room for him to dig down. This would be for around 4 weeks of brumation?
Should I make any adjustments? Should I not brumate him at all? Please let me know any thoughts.
From his physical exam this morning, I've taken some pictures for health assessment. Does he look alright as well?
My eastern hermann tortoise Kepler is around a year and four months old, approximately 4.8-5 inches long in the shell, and 462 grams (giving heavier Jackson ratio of around 0.22-3). He's been slowing down, and not eating as much as in summer, and it seems he might be ready.
Last winter around now, I set up a ceramic heat emitter and kept him from brumation, because he was too young. I suspect he grew fast as a result, and rivals the size of some folk's 3-4 year old tortoises. I know his age is right, I raised him from hatching, and his diet is as recommended here with primarily weeds, hibiscus leaves and flowers, some supplementation with mazuri and dark leaf romaine, with cuttlebone blocks available and once weekly calcium dusting. For his health this winter, I am planning to enter him into brumation.
I was going to stop feeding him today for three weeks, continue morning warm soaks, and abstain from adding a ceramic heat emitter to keep temps up at night, leaving only his basking lamp for the day that's around 85-90 currently at shell height due to colder house temps of around 50-65 F depending on day. I was going to restrict daylight to 8 hours instead of 12 hours potentially as well, matching how it is outside.
I'm calibrating my large fridge to have consistent temps, at approximately 40-45 degrees F. I have a continuous digital thermometer that can alert me if temps ever rise or fall too far. Is that the correct temperature for Hermanns?
I was then going to fill a cardboard box with a bit of plastic liner for the bottom and sides, and bury him in the fridge under around 1.5 inches of slightly moisturized but not wet coco coir with more room for him to dig down. This would be for around 4 weeks of brumation?
Should I make any adjustments? Should I not brumate him at all? Please let me know any thoughts.
From his physical exam this morning, I've taken some pictures for health assessment. Does he look alright as well?
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