Tortoise woke up! Advice Needed

[morbank]

Hello all--
I could use your advice. I have two tortoises that both went into hibernation this season (my first winter season with them). We had light rain for 2 days (very rare) and a 1/4 of the outdoor enclosure got wet. When I went to inspect the cage, I found that one of the tortoises was at the surface and sleeping in a pile of wet dirt. I cleaned him off, warmed him up, and placed him in a clean indoor temporary enclosure until I can figure out what to do. He seems to want to keep burrowing, so....

1) Should I put him back out in the outdoor enclosure where a 1/4 of the cage is wet and damp? It might continue to rain and I'm worried he will seek that area again. The drainage seems to be good there and the rain is not too heavy to cause flooding.

2) Get an indoor enclosure, which will be a 1/6 of the size of the outdoor enclosure, and just keep him here safe until the weather warms up in a month or 2? He won't have a lot of room to roam because it will be one of those large rubbermaid containers. He is 5".

I live in S. CA so the weather is so unpredictable! During winter, it can get to 70-80 during the days and down to 50 at night. Thank you.

Cindy

 

[kimber_lee_314]

No - don't put him back out in the damp area. In fact, I might even get the other one out of there as well. I'm in So Cal too. When I overwinter mine, I provide a pig blanket in a doghouse and keep it in the garage. Then I keep the garage door open so they can go in the yard whenever they want and go back to their warm house. Before I started doing that, I used to put them out on days that are 60 or warmer, and bring them inside at night to sleep. That worked too. Hope that was helpful.

 

[morbank]

Thanks Kimber for the advice!

So, if it is warm outside, I can put him in his outdoor enclosure to roam and get fresh air, and then just bring him in each night when the sun goes down? That seems like a good compromise.

 

[kimber_lee_314]

Thanks Kimber for the advice!

So, if it is warm outside, I can put him in his outdoor enclosure to roam and get fresh air, and then just bring him in each night when the sun goes down? That seems like a good compromise.

That's what I do - they graze a little (depending on the temperature) and it's supposed to in the 70s again by Wednesday (at least inland) so he should be fine. Good luck!

 

[ascott]

If he is still wanting to sleep you can also put him in a brumating box in your garage or location where he can be in a quiet, dark cool place until the weather warms more consistently--as well as the other tort

 

[Terry Allan Hall]

What species of tortoise?

 

[ascott]

What species of tortoise?

Terry, looks like all prior posts are for Russians