our box turtle buried himself

[mamasioux]

Should we turn off his light and heat pad?? He is inside for the winter and was doing great. Buried himself for a few hours, came out, ate, walked around. next day buried himself and hasnt come back out again. He is 7 years old and has never hibernated before!

 

[wellington]

Hello and Welcome. Did you prepare him to hibernate ( brumate)? If not, then I would bump up the heat a little and not let him brumate. There are some prep that should be done before the brumate. I can't help with what it all is, others will be able to.

 

[TigsMom]

They have to brumate with empty bellies, my boxies typically stop eating about a week before they hibernate. If they don't have empty stomachs, the food will rot and can cause big problems, they'll wake up very sick or not wake up. They need to be thoroughly hydrated, so if they don't have a soaking pond that they soak themselves in, then you'll need to soak them every other day for a week before they head to their long winter's nap.

My boxies live in an outdoor enclosure here, so they brumate naturally. I watch to make sure they're getting good soaks when they cut back on their eating. Right now they are awake again because it's in the 90's Deg F here, but they aren't eating and not soaking in the cool water either. I'll soak them all tomorrow in warm water just to be sure they're hydrated. With cool nights and cooler daytime temps from Halloween on, they'll head back to sleep.

 

[johnsonnboswell]

It's safer & better for heat to come from above rather than from a pad.

The short answer is no. Unless your house is a steady 45 degrees, inactivity is not hibernation, it's inactivity, and maybe eventual starvation. Keep light & heat going.

This is a good time for a new UVB bulb. Make sure it's running 14 or 15 hours a day. A cheap timer is good for that. Reptisun & zooMed make good bulbs. If your bulb was cheap it's probably not effective.

 

[lisa127]

I keep my boxie up throughout the winter. The way I do it is I leave UVB lighting running 13 to 14 hours a day. I keep gentle heat on at night. I use a rheostat to turn down his black heat bulbs at night so there is a slight temp drop at night but still some heat on so it feels more like summer. The UVB bulb I use is the Reptiglo 5.0. Mine is active and eating in all months so far.