Not eating

[BearTheTurtle]

Hello to all!

I have a 3 1/2 year old three-toed box turtle. It’s my second winter with her, and last year (I didn’t know much about turtles ), I made some mistakes, and didn’t do much research concerning brumation, so I kinda just kept her schedule the same and everything. This year, I don’t want to brumate her (bc I can’t handle not being with her for 6+ months ), so I have given her soaks every now and then, and have tried to feed her as much as I can, but all she will eat is a little banana every now and then. I have let her sleep more than she usually would. I have posted several times about brumation, and people have told me to that the only downside to doing this is not being able to breed her (I wasn’t ever planning on). My question is how can I get her to wake up more, and eat better foods (like insects and greens) Thanks for any advice! Thanks again,
-BearTheTurtle

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

Hey!

@Tom outlines steps to keep your tortoise more active in his brumation post:

"Here are steps to take if you don't want to brumate your temperate species:
1. Add bright LED lighting in the 5000-6500K color range. Lots of it. Make it look like daytime outside looks.
2. Set light timers to be on for 13-14 hours.
3. Bump all ambient temperatures up a bit.
4. Keep night temps warmer. Shoot for no lower than the 70s over night.
5. Pull the tortoise out of hiding and soak it often. Don't let it stay hidden in a cool hide box all day.
6. I usually run HO UV tubes for 2-3 hours mid day. To keep a tortoise up, I might bump them up to 6-8 hours a day."

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

You need to trick Bear into thinking it is summer again. Pump up the temperatures and make the lighting schedule longer (shorter nights and longer days).

 

[BearTheTurtle]

Hey!

@Tom outlines steps to keep your tortoise more active in his brumation post:

"Here are steps to take if you don't want to brumate your temperate species:
1. Add bright LED lighting in the 5000-6500K color range. Lots of it. Make it look like daytime outside looks.
2. Set light timers to be on for 13-14 hours.
3. Bump all ambient temperatures up a bit.
4. Keep night temps warmer. Shoot for no lower than the 70s over night.
5. Pull the tortoise out of hiding and soak it often. Don't let it stay hidden in a cool hide box all day.
6. I usually run HO UV tubes for 2-3 hours mid day. To keep a tortoise up, I might bump them up to 6-8 hours a day."

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

You need to trick Bear into thinking it is summer again. Pump up the temperatures and make the lighting schedule longer (shorter nights and longer days).

Thank you!