Hibernating Russian Tortoises

Tom

The Dog Trainer
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Jan 9, 2010
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Southern California
Does my plan make sense?

Yes. Perfect sense. That is the advantage of having an indoor and and outdoor enclosure. I am doing this exact same thing with my twenty 1-2 year old russians. I brought them back indoors a little over a week ago and I am feeding the bejesus out of them and soaking daily. They had slowed wayyyy down on the eating outside due to the colder night temps and shorter days, but since being brought back in, they are cleaning their plates daily again. I intend to fatten them up for another two weeks, then clean them out, cool them and get them sleeping in their fridge by early to mid December. Then using the same indoor enclosures, I will wake them late Feb. and gradually get them back up to speed and eating. Once the warm temps return they will get longer and longer periods outside until I can start leaving them out 24/7 again like I did all summer this past year.

Our day time temps are fine for them most of the year here. Its the night temps that prevent me from letting them live outside longer. We were 80 degrees today, but night temps tonight will be low 40s to high 30s. I'm considering adding some heat to their night boxes, so I can leave them outside more. I would only need to heat it to 60ish to accomplish what I need. I think a RHP on the box top coupled with a thermostat would do the job nicely.
 

AZTorts

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Jul 22, 2014
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139
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Arizona
Twenty? Wow! LOL I thought having 4 torts and 2 boxies was a lot. LOL Anyway, thanks so much Tom. I need to find more things for mine to eat now because the grape and pumpkin vines are dying back. They seemed to like those, especially the grape leaves and ruella flowers the most. Our low temp for tonight is supposed to be in the mid 50s. But I've been bringing them in every night anyway. I've only let them camp out a couple of nights since I got them last May.
 

MichaelL

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Nov 18, 2018
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983
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Ocala, Fl
In Florida our weather is anything ,but normal. When you have eighties during the day and forties at night. I stop feeding my Russians when they stop and bury under. ,but in my opinion and observation it is not just temperature I think the length of natural daylight is a factor to consider also.
Agreed
 

Tortoise MasterMan

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Nov 17, 2019
Messages
127
Location (City and/or State)
Utah
While not mandatory, hibernating is what they would do in the wild, so if it was me, thats what I would do here.
 
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