Wenzer
Member
My Russian girl has been staying under her hide much of the day and has not been eating. I do see her out of her hide occasionally and basking, but mostly I just find her hiding.
It has been pretty hot here recently, with heat indexes of 100F or higher occasionally. Her basking spots outdoors get much hotter than that with the sun beating down. So I've been keeping her indoors (mostly) for a little over a week now because I wasn't entirely sure/comfortable with the amount of cooling her outdoors enclosure currently offers... I'm still making small changes here and there, and working on a better hide box/area for the hotter days that can stay cooler for her.
I'm not entirely sure if she is estivating... But I know that prior to coming home with me, she lived in a 75 gallon aquarium with two box turtles and one heat lamp, and I'm not sure what the temperatures are that she was kept under previously, but could it be that if she was adjusted to cooler temperatures overall in the past... Maybe she is estivating now as a way to adjust to these hotter temperatures?
Indoors, I still have some trouble keeping temps down (due to the house I'm living in being very poorly insulated and just overall bad at temperature retention... I'm in the process of getting ready to move though!). The coolest parts of her indoor enclosure I can keep around 78-80F, and the basking area gets up to 100... But I've been switching out basking lights to lower and lower wattages to get a better range and basking spot temps, it's just this house working against me, I swear... There's a lot of sunlight that can shine into her room and with her basking and uvb lights I think she has plenty of visual light, it just seems like the temperatures are not easy to work with!
She is still a little active, at least when I go in to check on her, because I have to slightly lift her hide to be able to see if she's under there. She doesn't really try to bury herself, just goes under her hide. I've been keeping up with soaking her to make sure she doesn't start getting dehydrated from not eating... I don't know if she's she's drinking from her enclosure or not, though.
I've had her basking lamp set on a timer about 12 hours a day... Do you think I should shorten that time while she is being kept indoors, maybe? My understanding is that a combination of high heat and long periods of daylight can cause estivation, so while I'm trying to minimize the heat, maybe shortening her light schedule a bit would help?
It has been pretty hot here recently, with heat indexes of 100F or higher occasionally. Her basking spots outdoors get much hotter than that with the sun beating down. So I've been keeping her indoors (mostly) for a little over a week now because I wasn't entirely sure/comfortable with the amount of cooling her outdoors enclosure currently offers... I'm still making small changes here and there, and working on a better hide box/area for the hotter days that can stay cooler for her.
I'm not entirely sure if she is estivating... But I know that prior to coming home with me, she lived in a 75 gallon aquarium with two box turtles and one heat lamp, and I'm not sure what the temperatures are that she was kept under previously, but could it be that if she was adjusted to cooler temperatures overall in the past... Maybe she is estivating now as a way to adjust to these hotter temperatures?
Indoors, I still have some trouble keeping temps down (due to the house I'm living in being very poorly insulated and just overall bad at temperature retention... I'm in the process of getting ready to move though!). The coolest parts of her indoor enclosure I can keep around 78-80F, and the basking area gets up to 100... But I've been switching out basking lights to lower and lower wattages to get a better range and basking spot temps, it's just this house working against me, I swear... There's a lot of sunlight that can shine into her room and with her basking and uvb lights I think she has plenty of visual light, it just seems like the temperatures are not easy to work with!
She is still a little active, at least when I go in to check on her, because I have to slightly lift her hide to be able to see if she's under there. She doesn't really try to bury herself, just goes under her hide. I've been keeping up with soaking her to make sure she doesn't start getting dehydrated from not eating... I don't know if she's she's drinking from her enclosure or not, though.
I've had her basking lamp set on a timer about 12 hours a day... Do you think I should shorten that time while she is being kept indoors, maybe? My understanding is that a combination of high heat and long periods of daylight can cause estivation, so while I'm trying to minimize the heat, maybe shortening her light schedule a bit would help?