What is the average time for a 5 month old Russian tort to go to sleep at night?

[Carol S]

Hi:

I got my Russian tort in May (he is now 5 months old). Ever since I got him he goes to sleep at night at around 4:30 p.m. Do you think this is an average time for him to go to sleep at night? From reading the forum it sounds like other people's torts stay up later.
In the morning I come downstairs at around 8:30 and sometimes he is still buried in his substrate and once in a great while he is up walking around. Sometimes just his little head and neck is poking up out of the substrate and he is looking around (SO CUTE!).
His lights automatically come on at 6:30 a.m. and go off at 6:00 p.m.

Carol

 

[bettinge]

I think this is normal! Hatchlings, just like babies, sleep a lot. I feel they get the daily rhythm and at 4:30 he knows its time to find a sleeping spot for the night, as it will be too dark soon to see!

 

[Seiryu]

Hmm, you turn the lights on at 6am to 6pm? I havn't heard of anyone doing that for herps. I keep mine on from about 8am to 8pm. Your 12 hours of light/UVB are good, I just don't know about that early. Which is probably why he's sleeping at 4:30pm. He knows in a couple hours it will get dark.

Maybe try slowly changing your routine to make the lights turn on at 8-9am and on until 8-9pm. I wouldn't just change it directly to 8-9am as it could throw them off bigtime. Maybe 10-15mins later everyday until you get there.

However I do not have a russian and have no idea if they're supposed to have lights super early like that.

And yep, babies sleep, A LOT. My little leopard sleeps from 7-8pm to 8-9am most of the time. And little naps throughout the day.

 

[Isa]

Hmm, you turn the lights on at 6am to 6pm? I havn't heard of anyone doing that for herps. I keep mine on from about 8am to 8pm. Your 12 hours of light/UVB are good, I just don't know about that early. Which is probably why he's sleeping at 4:30pm. He knows in a couple hours it will get dark.

Maybe try slowly changing your routine to make the lights turn on at 8-9am and on until 8-9pm. I wouldn't just change it directly to 8-9am as it could throw them off bigtime. Maybe 10-15mins later everyday until you get there.

However I do not have a russian and have no idea if they're supposed to have lights super early like that.

And yep, babies sleep, A LOT. My little leopard sleeps from 7-8pm to 8-9am most of the time. And little naps throughout the day.

That is what I do, the light opens at 6Am and close at 7PM and it seems like Hermy like the schedule. I guess it depends.

 

[tortoisenerd]

My almost once year old tort is up from maybe 10am to 4pm on average. And, he takes naps in that time too! As long as he is up and about and eating everyday I let him be. A few times he has not been up yet when I got home from work at 4pm so then I woke him up, lol. I don't think the time of day the lights are on matters at all. You should be prepared to feed on schedule however long you wait after the lights come on though. As the lights are the torts "sun", they should adjust to whatever time you have them on. I turn my tort's light on according to my schedule, about 6am-6pm. On weekdays I feed him before I leave for work at 7am, and on weekends its a couple hours after that, but he's usually still not up so it's not an issue. A couple times he's still been awake when the light went off for the day and he got the idea quickly to go to bed!