To big for the fridge.

[yillt]

Hi. I am thinking ahead here and hopefully I won't have this problem, but what if Billy gets to big for the Fridge in hibernating season. I live in England and the temperatures outside are unpredictable in Winter, so in my garden shed would be abit risky. I don't want to have to give him to one of those 'give us your tortoise and we'll hibernate it for you' places. They're expensive and not great. Any ideas?

 

[JoesMum]

My 10.5" long 7lb Greek has been successfully double box hibernated in the south of England every winter for decades. Even last winter when it was so warm.

The outer box is the size of a tea chest and is packed hard with straw as insulation.

The inner box contains:

- A layer of kitchen paper on the bottom. Should Joe wee, the paper will be wet when I stick my hand in and I know that I need to get him up.

- The outdoor sensor of an indoor/outdoor thermometer which has max/min recording. It cost about £5 from Amazon.

- Joe and more straw.

Keep the big tea chest somewhere that has a reasonably stable temperature. Joe is kept in our garage which isn't used for the car, so people are not going in and out constantly. Junk is arranged strategically to avoid drafts! You are looking for a temperature around 5C and the straw keeps it pretty stable., but it can go up 8 or 9 without problems for a short period.

I also have a thermostatically controlled radiator in the garage which triggers as a frost stat. It will only come on if the temperature is below 2C which akkows for the really ghastly winters like the the one last year when we had prolonged snow even in Kent.

As ever you need to monitor frequently. Get him out, check him and weigh him. Joe was down from late November to March (about 3 months) this winter and didn't lose any weight. Last year, the late snow meant he was down for about four and a half months. Please contact me if you need to know more about box hibernating in the UK.