Urgent Advice needed re Hibernation!

[Jolind]

Hello everyone, my son has a healthy 6 year old Hermann, who has never hibernated before. We would like to try hibernation this year but need some advice. He is currently in his tortoise table box (ie no longer goes in the garden due to cold weather), and is alert, hungry and shows no signs of naturally slowing down. Giving they need to have an empty belly before hibernation - do we just stop feeding him? Having tried that for a day a week or two ago, he was clearly very hungry, pacing around in his large box, and literally climbing the walls. I felt so terrible for him that we put some dandelion in for him and he had a good feed and settled in bed (ie dark covered spot). How do we get him to slow down without being cruel/starving him? He shows no signs of wanting to hibernate.

Thanks for any advice you can give. Best wishes, Jo

 

[Lyn W]

Hi and welcome,
I don't know much about hibernation as my tort isn't a hibernating species but I believe you will need to gradually reduce the temps over time and he will naturally stop looking for food. However wait until someone experienced with this comes along to tell you what to do for sure such as @Tom or @Yvonne because there's probably other factors like hydration etc. you need to consider.
Meanwhile there are lots of threads about it if you use the search facility.
Many people use fridges now to hibernate torts in to keep temps even because of our fluctuating winter temps.
There may be something about it in the most recent caresheet.

The Best Way To Raise Any Temperate Species Of Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies and care for adults? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. What is...

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[zolasmum]

Hello everyone, my son has a healthy 6 year old Hermann, who has never hibernated before. We would like to try hibernation this year but need some advice. He is currently in his tortoise table box (ie no longer goes in the garden due to cold weather), and is alert, hungry and shows no signs of naturally slowing down. Giving they need to have an empty belly before hibernation - do we just stop feeding him? Having tried that for a day a week or two ago, he was clearly very hungry, pacing around in his large box, and literally climbing the walls. I felt so terrible for him that we put some dandelion in for him and he had a good feed and settled in bed (ie dark covered spot). How do we get him to slow down without being cruel/starving him? He shows no signs of wantin
Thanks for any advice you can give. Best wishes, Jo

Welcome Jo, from Devon. Why do you want to hibernate him now? If there isn't any special reason for doing so, I personally would not try to do so.
We have a Hermann tortoise who is now 21, and he is very healthy - we didn't try when he was little as he wasn't very healthy when we got him, and as he never showed any ill effects, it seemed better just to carry on awake - also, we really didn't want to risk anything going wrong. There are quite a few people on the forum who don't hibernate their tortoises.
`it seems like hibernation is a skill many tortoises have, which they can use if necessary - for instance, to avoid a cold winter, but they don't need to use. If they have hibernated in the past, then they would have to keep doing it, as their body would expect it, of course.
Very best wishes from Angie

 

[Tom]

Hello everyone, my son has a healthy 6 year old Hermann, who has never hibernated before. We would like to try hibernation this year but need some advice. He is currently in his tortoise table box (ie no longer goes in the garden due to cold weather), and is alert, hungry and shows no signs of naturally slowing down. Giving they need to have an empty belly before hibernation - do we just stop feeding him? Having tried that for a day a week or two ago, he was clearly very hungry, pacing around in his large box, and literally climbing the walls. I felt so terrible for him that we put some dandelion in for him and he had a good feed and settled in bed (ie dark covered spot). How do we get him to slow down without being cruel/starving him? He shows no signs of wanting to hibernate.

Thanks for any advice you can give. Best wishes, Jo

Scroll down to post number 19 for instructions:

Looking for an RT Hibernation "Mentor"

In this thread, @Tom mentioned seeking out a "mentor" who has experience in successfully hibernating Russian tortoises. So I am looking for you! Or any ideas of potential helpful peeps... Thanks! :) A little background: My boyfriend and I are interested in hibernating Steve, our male Russian...

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