Hi,
We are about to adopt a 6 year old hermann tortoise from an elderly couple who feel they cannot look after him any more.
However, they have (since birth) kept him in a warm vivarium with heat lamps and he's never been outside. He has never hibernated - poor little thing! After a lot of research I know it is vital that he hibernate as various horrible things such as kidney stones and bone problems can happen to him from eating 365 days a year as it's not natural for him to do so.
My problem is basically that I need to acclimatise him. There's no way he can go from being in a warm tank to going striaght outside now, and my thoughts are that for this first few months until we have warmer weather again in spring I let him outside for, say, half an hour a day or a week or something like that? The other problem there is that he probably won't hibernate then again this winter. Does anyone have any advice? I really want to get him into his natural routine as much as possible to make sure he is happy and comfortable, but I really don't want to cause him any harm by doing it.
I think the first step will be taking the heat lamp away, that way he can get used to living in a slightly cooler environment straight away and can acclimatise slowly to that. If I keep him in the vivarium in the house this winter but don't put any heat lamps on, will he still hibernate? I know that there is a starvation period of I think 28 days so should I do this or wait until next year?
Any advice whatsoever would be hugely appreciated!!
Amy
We are about to adopt a 6 year old hermann tortoise from an elderly couple who feel they cannot look after him any more.
However, they have (since birth) kept him in a warm vivarium with heat lamps and he's never been outside. He has never hibernated - poor little thing! After a lot of research I know it is vital that he hibernate as various horrible things such as kidney stones and bone problems can happen to him from eating 365 days a year as it's not natural for him to do so.
My problem is basically that I need to acclimatise him. There's no way he can go from being in a warm tank to going striaght outside now, and my thoughts are that for this first few months until we have warmer weather again in spring I let him outside for, say, half an hour a day or a week or something like that? The other problem there is that he probably won't hibernate then again this winter. Does anyone have any advice? I really want to get him into his natural routine as much as possible to make sure he is happy and comfortable, but I really don't want to cause him any harm by doing it.
I think the first step will be taking the heat lamp away, that way he can get used to living in a slightly cooler environment straight away and can acclimatise slowly to that. If I keep him in the vivarium in the house this winter but don't put any heat lamps on, will he still hibernate? I know that there is a starvation period of I think 28 days so should I do this or wait until next year?
Any advice whatsoever would be hugely appreciated!!
Amy