RT eating question

Redgeo

New Member
Joined
Sep 19, 2018
Messages
6
Location (City and/or State)
UK
Hello!

I have a horsefield tortoise. He’s about 3 and doesn’t hibernate. I have two questions I’d appreciate some of your wisdom on!

Q1. Given the fact that I don’t hibernate him, would you expect that he would maintain his appetite all year round relatively consistently; or would you expect him to have have periods / months where he doesn’t eat much? At the moment he’s eating a lot, but a couple of months ago he was barely eating anything.

Q2. I live in the UK which gets pretty cold in winter. I keep him in a tortoise table with heat lamp, UVB bulb and thermostat. I also have a wooden viv that he can move into in the winter if needed. But, he definitely prefers to be in the tortoise table. How do you guys keep your tortoise table warm at night in a cold climate (but at cooler temps than in the day)? Curious to know your day/night set ups for tortoise tables.

Thank you for any help you can provide!
 

Yvonne G

Old Timer
TFO Admin
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Jan 23, 2008
Messages
93,405
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Clovis, CA
Hi, and welcome!

Sometimes it's hard to keep them up during the winter. They sense the shorter days and cooler nights and nature tells them to stop eating. If you don't want them to brumate, then you have to fool him into thinking it's still summer - lights on for 14 hours a day, some sort of heat at night so it doesn't get any cooler than a summer night would, etc.

It's very difficult to keep an open-top table warm. One way is to cover it. You can also provide heat without light by using a CHE (ceramic heat emitter):

ceramic heat emitter.jpg
 
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