Help! Cold wet tortoise when hibernating

[Swena79]

Help!
I had my Sonoran desert tortoise hibernating in a bin with hay like we normally do. The bin had a lid with holes, cracked open, for air. Normally we put him in the garage to hibernate but I had moved him to the backyard for a few weeks because we had lawnmowers in the garage that had a strong gas smell. I didn’t want him sitting in the enclosed garage with that strong smell. Anyway, I totally forgot he was outside and it was raining a lot, as really cold. It has a couple inches of cold water in it and his hay was wet. I panicked, took him out, dried him off as much as I could with a towel, and put him back in the dry bin with fresh new dry hay. Is that good enough or do I need to warm him better first? I googled it and it said to warm him in water to room temperature for 1-2 hours before re-hibernating him? Is that right? 😞

 

[wellington]

@Tom
@Yvonne G

 

[Yvonne G]

If it were my tortoise I would re-package him in dry surroundings and store him as usual. But it's a crap shoot. The safe thing to do is to keep him up the rest of the winter and not allow him to finish brumation. This means indoors with heat and lights, etc.

 

[Tom]

Help!
I had my Sonoran desert tortoise hibernating in a bin with hay like we normally do. The bin had a lid with holes, cracked open, for air. Normally we put him in the garage to hibernate but I had moved him to the backyard for a few weeks because we had lawnmowers in the garage that had a strong gas smell. I didn’t want him sitting in the enclosed garage with that strong smell. Anyway, I totally forgot he was outside and it was raining a lot, as really cold. It has a couple inches of cold water in it and his hay was wet. I panicked, took him out, dried him off as much as I could with a towel, and put him back in the dry bin with fresh new dry hay. Is that good enough or do I need to warm him better first? I googled it and it said to warm him in water to room temperature for 1-2 hours before re-hibernating him? Is that right? 😞

Why on earth would someone tell you to warm him back up and then cool him back down for more brumation? That makes no sense at all. Keep him cold and let him finish brumating. He didn't get too warm. He didn't eat anything. I say leave him be.