I just needed some help, because Iv only had my tortoise around4 months. Iv read about hibernating because it’s been getting colder where I live and this past week he has been eating less and he’s not as active. Do I need to do anything to help him hibernate?
Hibernate?
- Thread starter Abila10
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Not if you've only had him 4 months. You should keep him warm and up all winter. It gets cold enuf in Visalia that he would need a heated house. How old is he? What species? Do you have photos? Welcome...
I’m not sure I got him like 4 months ago from petco and he’s not bigger than my hand. He’s a Greek tortoise and I keep his box at 85 so he’s usually pretty happy he just got a little less active these last few days. This is about a month ago I’ll get another when I get home and thank you!
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What are his enclosure temperatures? Hopefully an expert will be able to help you soon. However the temperature, lights and diet will be helpful. If you can attach pictures as well.
Pet stores tend to give terrible advice and sell you the wrong products. Let's get you started with the correct care info, and then move on to whether or not to brumate. It is still plenty warm and sunny here in SoCal, so your tortoise is a bit early to be trying to brumate.
There are four elements to heating and lighting:
- Basking bulb. I use 65 watt incandescent floods from the hardware store. Some people will need bigger, or smaller wattage bulbs. Let your thermometer be your guide. I run them on a timer for about 12 hours and adjust the height to get the correct basking temp under them. I also like to use a flat rock of some sort directly under the bulb. You need to check the temp with a thermometer directly under the bulb and get it to around 95-100F (36-37C).
- Ambient heat maintenance. I use ceramic heating elements or radiant heat panels set on thermostats to maintain ambient above 80 degrees day and night for tropical species. In most cases you'd only need day heat for a temperate species like Testudo or DT, as long as your house stays above 60F (15-16C) at night. Some people in colder climates or with larger enclosures will need multiple CHEs or RHPs to spread out enough heat.
- Ambient light. I use LEDs for this purpose. Something in the 5000-6500K color range will look the best. Most bulbs at the store are in the 2500K range and they look yellowish. Strip or screw-in LED bulb types are both fine.
- UV. If you can get your tortoise outside for an hour 2 or 3 times a week, you won't need indoor UV. In colder climates, get one of the newer HO type fluorescent tubes. Which type will depend on mounting height. 5.0 bulbs make almost no UV. I like the 12% HO bulbs from Arcadia. You need a meter to check this: https://www.solarmeter.com/model65.html A good UV bulb only needs to run for 2-3 hours mid day. You need the basking bulb and the ambient lighting to be on at least 12 hours a day.
The Best Way To Raise Any Temperate Species Of Tortoise
I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies and care for adults? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. What is...
tortoiseforum.org
Let's make sure your enclosure is the right size, your lighting and temperatures are correct, and then we can start ruling out potential problems.
So under his light it’s at 91 and the rest of his box sits at 85 every other side. I use one of those laser thermometers along with his humidity and temp meter. My house stays at 73 and his house never goes below 75 at night so I figured he was ok with the temps. So I got him on a timer about two months ago but I switched to one bulb, but Iv seen a lot of people say it’s not good to use a all in one bulb but it seems to light up and provide good heat and everything, but I’ll switch that up and get some more bulbs, and a rock he can stay on under his light. He’s still pretty much the same but these past few days he’s just eating less and digging a lot more? Like he likes to dig but these past few days he’s been trying to get through the liner and his house is about 3x5 feet so I figured for his small size it was ok. I just figured it might have been hibernating. Maybe it is the bulbs? Thank you again for all the infoPet stores tend to give terrible advice and sell you the wrong products. Let's get you started with the correct care info, and then move on to whether or not to brumate. It is still plenty warm and sunny here in SoCal, so your tortoise is a bit early to be trying to brumate.
There are four elements to heating and lighting:
- Basking bulb. I use 65 watt incandescent floods from the hardware store. Some people will need bigger, or smaller wattage bulbs. Let your thermometer be your guide. I run them on a timer for about 12 hours and adjust the height to get the correct basking temp under them. I also like to use a flat rock of some sort directly under the bulb. You need to check the temp with a thermometer directly under the bulb and get it to around 95-100F (36-37C).
- Ambient heat maintenance. I use ceramic heating elements or radiant heat panels set on thermostats to maintain ambient above 80 degrees day and night for tropical species. In most cases you'd only need day heat for a temperate species like Testudo or DT, as long as your house stays above 60F (15-16C) at night. Some people in colder climates or with larger enclosures will need multiple CHEs or RHPs to spread out enough heat.
- Ambient light. I use LEDs for this purpose. Something in the 5000-6500K color range will look the best. Most bulbs at the store are in the 2500K range and they look yellowish. Strip or screw-in LED bulb types are both fine.
- UV. If you can get your tortoise outside for an hour 2 or 3 times a week, you won't need indoor UV. In colder climates, get one of the newer HO type fluorescent tubes. Which type will depend on mounting height. 5.0 bulbs make almost no UV. I like the 12% HO bulbs from Arcadia. You need a meter to check this: https://www.solarmeter.com/model65.html A good UV bulb only needs to run for 2-3 hours mid day. You need the basking bulb and the ambient lighting to be on at least 12 hours a day.
The Best Way To Raise Any Temperate Species Of Tortoise
I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies and care for adults? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. What is...
Let's make sure your enclosure is the right size, your lighting and temperatures are correct, and then we can start ruling out potential problems.
How do you know it's sex?
That’s actually what I don’t know he has a short stubby tail but his underside goes in alil
Even I have a Greek tort. I live in Jordan, where it snows during Winter. However, Oli has never hibernated since he has lived with me. That's probably due to the fact that it is relatively "warm" indoors even when it is snowing.
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