hibernating tortoises

[Anthony Hill]

I have 2 russians, 1hermans ,and 1 3toedbox in a 12ft by 6ft outdoor screened pen and its divded into 3 sections. I was wondering about hibernating them in northern illinois outdoors wat preperations should i take?ive heard of people hibernating torts in the northeastern states.

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Sorry you've been waiting.
I don't know this, bit I'll bump the thread.

 

[Jodie]

I wouldn't hibernate them outside. Inside you can control the temp and moisture much more safely.

 

[tglazie]

I agree, hibernating indoors is infinitely preferable. You also have to worry about rats and other rodents nesting with your tortoise outdoors, using them as a winter time food source. Indoors can be controlled via fridge. I do it every year, no incidents.

T.G.

 

[BradKellerDA]

I agree, hibernating indoors is infinitely preferable. You also have to worry about rats and other rodents nesting with your tortoise outdoors, using them as a winter time food source. Indoors can be controlled via fridge. I do it every year, no incidents.

T.G.

How do you get the tortoise to go down to the point you can stick him in a fridge?

 

[tglazie]

It depends upon your local climate. I live in South Texas, so it doesn't really start getting too chilly here until late November. Your location reads Ohio, so I'm guessing it gets colder in your neck of the woods sooner than it does in mine. So, I would tailor whatever advice I have on offer to your particular climate. That being said, my tortoises are usually quite active until late October, when temps start to cool and nights start dropping into the fifties. During these nights, I bring my animals indoors, given that I don't want them to get too cold and fool themselves into hibernation. This period really messes with their whole concept of season given that their native Greece is actually a touch cooler than South Texas is. So, I bring them indoors anytime the temp drops below fifty. I also keep them indoors if we have cold rain showers, as I feel this isn't good for tortoises, regardless of their origin. They could do something dumb, like sit out overnight in a rainstorm when the temp drops to fifty five degrees and suffer a respiratory illness.

Anywho, I bring them indoors at night, but on most of these nights, I leave them out. In the first month of November, I start starving the animals. I don't feed them, and I soak them every day. They may find food outdoors on their own, but I generally find that their appetites are virtually nonexistent at this time, given the reduced photoperiod and average temperature. I keep watering them at this time, not so much to clear their guts, given that I don't think this is as big of a deal as the books in the past have made it out to be (don't get me wrong, tortoises shouldn't be fed in the lead up to brumation, but if they catch a weed or two in their outdoor run, it's not going to be the end of the world), but because they should be hydrated before this. So, in the lead up to the first day of brumation (which I generally schedule between late November and the first day of December), I prepare several rubbermaid sweater boxes with holes drilled into the side of them for ventilation. I monitor the temps in my fridge, which is a large restaurant drink cooler that I got from a convenience store that was closing in Poteet. I make sure that temps are stable, oscillating between 35 and 45 F, never above, never below. I fill each container with a mixture of peat moss and topsoil that is deep enough for the tortoise to bury itself should it so choose. Usually, if you keep these temperatures, the tortoise will remain in the same spot you placed them in the cooler. Sometimes, they don't, but usually they do.

The first day of brumation varies, given that the weather has to be right. My preference is for a chilly day with no rain, where the temp drops into the forties at night. During late November, this isn't a problem for me. Late at night, when the animals are bedded down, I go outside, place them into the sweater boxes, and I weigh them outdoors in the cool weather, box and all. I record this in a log book, and I make a note of the weight twice per week. If I notice any significant weight loss (in excess of five percent, I pull the animal from brumation early to address any troubles; I've only had to do this once, and it was long ago with some Russians that I shouldn't have been brumating, so I wouldn't worry too much). Once I've gotten them in the fridge, I open the fridge door to check the temperature and the individual animals. I use a temp gun and fire the laser into one of the holes on the side of the sweater box to figure out the temp the tortoise is actually experiencing. Other than that, I wait for warmer days in mid to late February. Sometimes I wait until mid March, given that South Texas can be rather unpredictable, and late freezes can occur. I can keep the torts indoors during this period, but honestly, I hate keeping my margies indoors. They can't stand it. My radiated tortoises, they can accept an indoor enclosure. They don't seem especially bothered by comparatively confined space. Every Testudo I have ever kept, however, can't stand indoor confinement for more than a few months, I find. They become depressed without their spacious, planted outdoor enclosures.

Some other things... I never brumate hatchlings or any tortoise less than three years of age. After my margies reach three years, they are usually in excess of four inches long (some of them can be up to eight at that point; it really depends upon how much the animal eats, outdoor weather conditions, tendency of the animal to graze/hide, genetics I'm sure, any number of factors), and they can hold their own in the hibernaculum. Younger than that, I'm just not comfortable with. Also, any animal that I've had for less than two years, I don't brumate.

T.G.