Outside lifestyle
- Thread starter Lucas791
- Start date
I woild not leave him outdoors in snow. Hermanns are pretty small and less resistant to cold. Once the winter starts, he will naturally start to become less active, stop eating and hibernate. My Greek, Joe, winds himself down for hibernation and I take my cues from him. I usually have him boxed for the winter the night before the first frost. He is very rarely wrong.
He would dig in and hibernate himself. If he is not 100% healthy or his choice of hibernation spot was too cold or too wet or at risk from predators like rats, then no he would not survive. Don't get me wrong, some torts do hibernate themselves successfully in people's back yards, but it is not something that I would recommend.
In weather like that, you should either bring the tort indoors or hibernate it yourself
I don't allow any of my hibernating species (except the box turtles) to hibernate themselves. My climate is nothing like the climate where any of them come from. Too wet, for one thing.
In the fall when they stop eating, you'll notice that they only come out and sun themselves, then they go back into their house. At this time, I'll box them up in cardboard boxes of shredded newspaper and put the box someplace where it stays below 50F but above 40F. A quiet, dry place with a constant temperature.
In the spring I start listening to the boxes and when I hear them scrabbling around, I'll put the back outside. But all my tortoise houses are dry, so if it rains and is cold, at least they're dry in their houses.
In the fall when they stop eating, you'll notice that they only come out and sun themselves, then they go back into their house. At this time, I'll box them up in cardboard boxes of shredded newspaper and put the box someplace where it stays below 50F but above 40F. A quiet, dry place with a constant temperature.
In the spring I start listening to the boxes and when I hear them scrabbling around, I'll put the back outside. But all my tortoise houses are dry, so if it rains and is cold, at least they're dry in their houses.
I hibernate all my Hermanni under my weekly supervision.
You are going to "try your chances"? You are not risking your self here, you are risking your tortoise's life. Understand that Testudo hermanni did not evolve in Central TX, and so they are not always able to deal with what the weather throws at them. Please do not gamble with your tortoises life. It is physically possible that your tortoise will survive out there, but why would you want to risk it? What if it doesn't survive? Just bring it inside for hibernation as Yvonne suggested and then you don't have to worry about weather extremes killing your tortoise.
While we are on the subject, is your entire backyard going to be the tortoise enclosure? Are you taking the precautions to protect him from escape, weather extremes, local predators, etc? Do you have a dog?
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