Hello all, this is my first real post so please bear with me and forgive any newbie mistakes I may make. Basically I’m after some advice as to what to do with my dear little tortoises as we head into the winter.
To add a little background, I took ownership of two Horsefield tortoises in November last year. They had belonged to a friend of a work colleague who had to go at short notice to work as an expat in the far east. They were dumped on my colleague with instruction to find a new owner. I had for some time liked the idea of owning a tortoise and had discussed it a couple of times with my wife. And so when the opportunity came to take them I thought why not, however I hadn’t actually read much into owning one (BIG mistake!) and so was under prepared when we got them.
When we picked up the tortoises we were given a book, a small wooden vivarium with sliding glass window and a strip light duct taped to the roof of it. We had no idea as to the breed of the tortoises and were only told that one was male and the other female, that their age was about 6 years old, they’d lived indoors all their lives and they liked to eat salad leaves, tomato and cucumber.
Even as ill-informed as I was, I could see straight away that they had been living in some quite unsuitable, actually, terrible conditions. The more I read on internet sites and forums like this the more I realised that my first thoughts were correct. They both suffered from quite severe pyramiding of their shells, and given the age I was told they were, very big.
As we received them at the beginning of the winter, our first thoughts were whether we should hibernate them or not. We had no idea as to their physical condition, and given all the advice on the internet, we decided not to hibernate them. We adjusted the vivarium, by changing the floor material from wood chippings to a tortoise suitable desert sand, we installed a large reptile lamp that was on for 12 hours a day, and changed their diet to a mixture of rocket leaves, dandelion leaves and dried flowers.
As soon as early spring came about I made them a large enclosure outside, with rocks to climb on, digging pit, basking area, water pool and plenty of shade and hideouts where they can rest. Since they went in there they’ve really had a new lease of life. They seem more content (from as far as one can tell on a tortoise!), are far more active, and we’ve become very attached to them.
Now it’s nearly winter again, and I’m considering whether or not to hibernate them. I know previously they’ve never hibernated, so this is my first concern. Also, on a recent vets checkup we were told they have worms (although apparently this type of worm is very common in tortoises), and there’s conflicting advice on whether or not you should hibernate tortoises with worms. Finally, I’m not sure on the size - given that they’ve grown far too quickly, I’m not sure what is a healthy weight to let them to go into hibernation. The female is 18cm long and weighs 951g and the male is 15cm long yet weights less than halve that at 454g. They both appear very fit and healthy without any signs of disease or illness.
I’ve got everything in place to hibernate them (fridge, boxes etc.) and haven’t fed them for the past two weeks. They've been showing signs of wanting to go into hibernation (sleepy, lethargic, digging themselves into the ground etc.) So after this very long winded introduction I’d like to ask you all what you would do in this situation? Many thanks!
To add a little background, I took ownership of two Horsefield tortoises in November last year. They had belonged to a friend of a work colleague who had to go at short notice to work as an expat in the far east. They were dumped on my colleague with instruction to find a new owner. I had for some time liked the idea of owning a tortoise and had discussed it a couple of times with my wife. And so when the opportunity came to take them I thought why not, however I hadn’t actually read much into owning one (BIG mistake!) and so was under prepared when we got them.
When we picked up the tortoises we were given a book, a small wooden vivarium with sliding glass window and a strip light duct taped to the roof of it. We had no idea as to the breed of the tortoises and were only told that one was male and the other female, that their age was about 6 years old, they’d lived indoors all their lives and they liked to eat salad leaves, tomato and cucumber.
Even as ill-informed as I was, I could see straight away that they had been living in some quite unsuitable, actually, terrible conditions. The more I read on internet sites and forums like this the more I realised that my first thoughts were correct. They both suffered from quite severe pyramiding of their shells, and given the age I was told they were, very big.
As we received them at the beginning of the winter, our first thoughts were whether we should hibernate them or not. We had no idea as to their physical condition, and given all the advice on the internet, we decided not to hibernate them. We adjusted the vivarium, by changing the floor material from wood chippings to a tortoise suitable desert sand, we installed a large reptile lamp that was on for 12 hours a day, and changed their diet to a mixture of rocket leaves, dandelion leaves and dried flowers.
As soon as early spring came about I made them a large enclosure outside, with rocks to climb on, digging pit, basking area, water pool and plenty of shade and hideouts where they can rest. Since they went in there they’ve really had a new lease of life. They seem more content (from as far as one can tell on a tortoise!), are far more active, and we’ve become very attached to them.
Now it’s nearly winter again, and I’m considering whether or not to hibernate them. I know previously they’ve never hibernated, so this is my first concern. Also, on a recent vets checkup we were told they have worms (although apparently this type of worm is very common in tortoises), and there’s conflicting advice on whether or not you should hibernate tortoises with worms. Finally, I’m not sure on the size - given that they’ve grown far too quickly, I’m not sure what is a healthy weight to let them to go into hibernation. The female is 18cm long and weighs 951g and the male is 15cm long yet weights less than halve that at 454g. They both appear very fit and healthy without any signs of disease or illness.
I’ve got everything in place to hibernate them (fridge, boxes etc.) and haven’t fed them for the past two weeks. They've been showing signs of wanting to go into hibernation (sleepy, lethargic, digging themselves into the ground etc.) So after this very long winded introduction I’d like to ask you all what you would do in this situation? Many thanks!
