Please help! Hibernation going wrong?

[Gandalf the Turtle]

Hi!

I have a 1 year old Hermann's tortoise called Gandalf. Gandalf started burrowing himself in the dirt about a month ago, so I decided two put him in the cellar two weeks ago without food. I've been checking on him every few days and he's been buried ever since. I bought a fridge today in hopes of putting him in there, but I have to find the right temperature with the thermometer first. The humidity inside the terrarium is 71%.

Where do I go from here? I have everything else prepared. His box consists of two parts. First, a small 7 by 4 inch wooden carton with holes on the bottom and no lid, which I'll fill up with earth. The second is a cardboard shoe box to shield him from light, so that he won't be disturbed by me opening the fridge for a few seconds to check on him. I've woken him up twice from hibernation accidentally because I moved the terrarium to progressively colder areas.

My big fear is that he could have died, but I don't want to wake him up just in case he's dead.

I don't know what to do.

 

[Yvonne G]

It's not harmful to disturb a tortoise during his brumation. They're usually just too cold to move, and not really "asleep" like a hibernating bear or whatnot. Lots of people touch a tortoise leg about once a week just to make sure he's still alive. You should get a reaction when you touch a leg. But I just leave mine alone all winter.

While on the subject - I don't usually allow brumation until the tortoise is three years old. I know, I know. . . babies hibernate/brumate in the wild right out of the egg. It's just a safety thing I worry about.

 

[Gandalf the Turtle]

It's not harmful to disturb a tortoise during his brumation. They're usually just too cold to move, and not really "asleep" like a hibernating bear or whatnot. Lots of people touch a tortoise leg about once a week just to make sure he's still alive. You should get a reaction when you touch a leg. But I just leave mine alone all winter.

While on the subject - I don't usually allow brumation until the tortoise is three years old. I know, I know. . . babies hibernate/brumate in the wild right out of the egg. It's just a safety thing I worry about.

Hi, thanks for the quick reply! Do you think I can wake him up now, even though he's only been hibernating/bruminating for a month?

 

[Moozillion]

I have read where members have had to waken their hibernating tortoises for various reasons. If you waken him slowly and gently it should be OK. What I mean by slowly and gently is pay CLOSE attention to his temperature. An infrared heat gun is relatively inexpensive ($30) here in the US, I don't know if they're available in the Netherlands.
But you at least know what the current temperature of his environment is. I would have a small tub of water that is maybe 15-20 degrees WARMER than the temperature he has been in. Let him sit in the water for a while- maybe an hour? You may have to add warm water if it cools off. Then change his water to warmer than that FIRST bath, and let him sit. etc.
I've been hoping other more experienced people would pop in here.
I have never hibernated my tortoise. We do what I call "brumation lite." I have a plastic pond liner that is about 4 ft by 6 ft. and it has garden dirt WITH NO CHEMICALS OR FERTILIZER IN IT to a depth of 4 inches so she can bury herself. The sides of the liner stand 6 inches above the level of the dirt so she can't get out. I have heat and UVB light hanging over it. It is also in a small room that we don't use for much, and have a small heater in the room to keep the ambient temperature up. In her pond liner, I dig several deep holes in the dirt and pour water into it, then cover the holes over. That way the surface soil is dry so she won't get fungus infections, but the under-soil is damp. The water below also gradually evaporates up and helps with overall moist atmosphere.

 

[Moozillion]

I bring my tortoise inside to this enclosure for the winter. Even when I keep the temperatures up and the lights on, she still tries to sleep. I let her sleep for 1 or 2 days, then I dig her up, give her a warm soak for 20 minutes and feed her. Then she basks a while and digs herself in again.

 

[Gillian M]

Did you wake your tort up?

Hope to hear that all went well.

 

[Loohan]

The first time i brumated my little 3-toe boxie, i had read you're supposed to wake them up every 2-3 weeks and give them a warm soak and check on them. So that's what i did, 3 times.
I would just take the box out of the fridge and let it sit in the room for hours. Then he would be pretty awake and i would soak him, weigh him, and put him back.
Didn't have any problems and he seemed a healthier turtle, better appetite, afterwards.
That was his 2nd winter and first brumation.

I have read an article (on this forum i think) presenting the viewpoint that it is especially important to brumate them the first few years of their lives for health reasons.
However many people don't because they are more vulnerable to conditions.