New member needing some help

[mrob13]

Hi all.
Im new to tortoise ownership,i have recently acquired a 10 year old hermann which i keep in a table in the garage.he has spent the last 3 days buried under the substrate and hasn’t moved,it went cold this week and went down to 14 degrees in the garage. Im wandering has he gone into hibernation?

 

[wellington]

You are suppose to provide heat for him. Tortoises can't just go right into brumation. They have to be off food for a time and soaked a lot before they do. They also need to have it done right and not left to do it on their own. They need a steady low temp to brumate.
You need to provide heat. 95-100F basking, 75-80F all over and no lower than 65F at night.
Then if you want to brumate him, start the process.

 

[mrob13]

You are suppose to provide heat for him. Tortoises can't just go right into brumation. They have to be off food for a time and soaked a lot before they do. They also need to have it done right and not left to do it on their own. They need a steady low temp to brumate.
You need to provide heat. 95-100F basking, 75-80F all over and no lower than 65F at night.
Then if you want to brumate him, start the process.

I do provide heat during the day for 10 hours and im aware of the procedure before hibernation.just didn’t expect him to go hibernation this early in the year

 

[wellington]

I do provide heat during the day for 10 hours and im aware of the procedure before hibernation.just didn’t expect him to go hibernation this early in the year

But if your garage got that cold and he didn't have heat or it wasn't warm enough he would. However, if you get the heat up where it's suppose to be day and night, he likely will wake and be normal. Too cold and he's going to get sick and you won't be able to brumate him.

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Welcome! Feel free to check out this thread on housing your guy indoors, use it double check you’re using the right kind of bulbs, have the right levels, enclosure size etc, there’s also a good diet link

Housing adult Russian and Hermans indoors

Hello there! In this thread I’m going to include some information an example of an appropriate indoor set up for an older Herman/russian. As much as it’s encouraged to have tortoises in a safe outdoor enclosure, I understand being from the uk myself, that some climates make it difficult to...

tortoiseforum.org

This one is good to double check materials and such

Common keeping errors

Hello everyone! I’d been a long time lurker on this site long before joining just under a year ago now, over that time I’ve seen these husbandry issues come up time and time again, sometimes with dire consequences☹️ I thought this thread might serve as a good visual guide for these common...

tortoiseforum.org

Hope they help! Feel free to come back with more questions if you have any

 

[Tom]

I do provide heat during the day for 10 hours and im aware of the procedure before hibernation.just didn’t expect him to go hibernation this early in the year

Heat should be on for at least 12 hours daily, and more like 13-14 if you don't want to brumate him yet. The light cycle should not go down to 10 hours a day until you are well into the the process of preparing for brumation which takes 4-6 weeks. So no, your tortoise is not "going in to hibernation" over night. It is just too cold.

There is a lot of old outdated incorrect tortoise care advice out in the world. Here is the current and correct care info:

Info For New People. Please Read This First.

Hello and welcome to tortoiseforum.org! We are all glad you are here! There is no other forum like this anywhere. We have tens of thousands of members from all over the world ranging from kids with their first tortoise to people who have been breeding and keeping high end tortoises since the...

tortoiseforum.org

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

Here is the brumation info, and questions about any of these assertions are welcome:

Tom's Brumation Thread

Every fall we get bombarded here on the forum with all sorts of questions and problems regarding hibernation and tortoises "slowing down" for winter. The purpose of this thread is to talk about all aspects of this subject, to dispel some of the myths and mysteries, and give a "how to" list of...

tortoiseforum.org