ITS THAT TIME OF YEAR-TORT SLEEPING MORE-ACTING DIFFERENT

wellington

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Fall/cooler weather and shorter days are moving in. Every year the forum gets flooded with concerned members, worried because their tort is sleeping more, hiding more, not eating as much. Chances are it's the change of the time of year. We usually see this flood of it happening about 3 times a year. In the fall, once during winter and then again in the spring.
Best thing to do is check all temps and humidity to be correct. Make sure all lighting is working and adjust the timer if your using one. It may have lost or gained time. May also want to adjust the time the lights go on and off. Once all this has been checked, and there are no other signs of an illness, diarrhea, runny nose, etc, then you can safely assume it's the time of year changes that's making your tort act weird.
 

Wolfpackin

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May 28, 2018
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Colorado
Thanks for the reminder!

Rocky is almost 5 years old but this will only be our third winter with him, and he is just starting to exhibit the behavior you outlined above.
Our ambient house temperature is starting to cool off during the day and nighttime temps have dropped from the mid to upper 70's to 69°/70° every early morning. I think that combined with falling humidity and shorter days would trigger a change in behavior.

I was starting to worry a little but he probably did the same thing this time last year and I forgot or just didn't pay attention.
 

LaLaP

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Jun 25, 2018
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Portland, OR
Yes thank you for this! This is my first Fall/winter with my Russian tortoise, Diego. He has definitely been slowing down, eating less and sleeping more. I figured it was the change of season but I do have a question... should I expect him to behave like this all winter? Or do they adjust and perk up? Does a non brumating adult tortoise lose or gain weight over the winter? Thanks as always!
 

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