What's your brumation container/location?

[thatrebecca]

Cardboard box? Chest fridge? Rubbermaid?

Basement? Garage? Closet?

As we approach brumation season, I'd love to hear how indoor brumaters do it. Pictures are welcome too.

 

[Yvonne G]

I allow three different species to brumate...

The Gopherus agazissii and the Gopherus berlandieri brumate in their outdoor houses:

The CDT and TDT houses are outside under a big mulberry tree. First there is a pad of masonry caps placed on level ground. Then cinder blocks form the walls and plywood is the roof (can be lifted up for ease of looking inside). When Autumn rolls around I fill the houses with leaves. Then I cover the houses with plastic film to keep the rain out. Then I pile garden trash all over the top and sides of the houses. Once the tortoises stop coming out to sun themselves I block the door with plywood and another cinder block to keep them in and critters out.

The Testudo horsfieldii are gathered up and taken in to an old, vacant house at the back of my property. Inside this house is an unplugged chest-type freezer. I shred newspapers and make a layer on the bottom of the freezer. Then I box up the Russians in shredded newspaper and set the boxes in the freezer. Then I add more shredded newspaper, filling up the freezer. I close the lid and put a pencil across one corner so it doesn't seal tightly. The freezer is so well-insulated that the fluctuation of temperature in the house from day to night, warm to cold, doesn't effect the temp inside the freezer, once it has stabilized.

 

[Levi the Leopard]

Yvonne, is this freezer turned on?

Sent from my TFOapp

 

[Yvonne G]

No, there is no electricity in the old house.

 

[peasinapod]

A well sized plastic box with a lid, but with air holes. It will be filled with a mix of earth and some sand (we have a lot of clay in our ground). On top of the earth-sand mix I will put beech leaves. Everything will be kept damp. It will be put in the fridge as I haven't been able to secure the outdoor pen enough for an independent hibernation yet and as our garage is way too cold (6.8F can be quite normal during the winter nights) and our cellar is too warm (55-60F).

I fill the fridge up with water bottles as well to keep temperature fluctuations to a minimum.

 

[thatrebecca]

I love all these answers, keep em coming!

Has anybody ever used a cooler, kind of a smaller variation in the chest fridge model for smaller torts? And is each tort separately 'wrapped' so to speak?

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Oh and a cooler cracked for air, of course.

 

[george.T.tort]

I have two marginated tortoises that have spent the uk summer in my garden. When I hibernate them they will be kept in a shoe box each with shredded paper and holes in. Each shoe box will be placed in another cardboard box with shredded paper or polystyrene packing . I then keep the boxes in the fridge. I check them every couple of days. I've done this the last few years with no problems. Apart from the wife moaning about there not being enough room for food in the fridge!!

 

[thatrebecca]

I have two marginated tortoises that have spent the uk summer in my garden. When I hibernate them they will be kept in a shoe box each with shredded paper and holes in. Each shoe box will be placed in another cardboard box with shredded paper or polystyrene packing . I then keep the boxes in the fridge. I check them every couple of days. I've done this the last few years with no problems. Apart from the wife moaning about there not being enough room for food in the fridge!!

As a first-time brumater, forgive the naive questions, but... Is the fridge on? And the door shut? As in, the same fridge where the milk for your tea goes?

 

[thatrebecca]

So a guy not far from me is selling a malfunctioning (no longer freezing) chest freezer for $20. Seems like a good brumation container. I'd use the method similar to what Yvonne has described above for her horsfieldii for my CDTs. It would go either in our garage or in a backyard shed that is shaded. What do you guys think?

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/wst/app/4112500858.html

 

[Tom]

What do you guys think?

I like it. I used to use an old fridge on its back for DT hibernation for years. Like Yvonne said, it really stays stable despite the daily highs and lows. Funny, her and I had similar ideas about ventilation. She used a pencil, while I used the hollow body of a disassembled pen.

This idea will probably work well in your back yard shed. Just watch the temps closely. You can put frozen water bottles in there if we have a winter hot spell and your temp starts creeping up, or you can put hot water bottles in there if we have a freakish winter cold snap. Most likely you won't have to do either.

 

[george.T.tort]

Yep the same fridge that the milk for my tea goes in! Though I may have to get an old fridge just for the torts as the wife isn't so keen! The fridge is on and I keep a fridge thermometer in there to keep an eye on temp. The temp is stable at 5deg no matter what weather outside is. If I get an old fridge just for the torts this year I will take the seals out of the door to allow for air flow. I haven't done this in previous years because I was using the kitchen fridge and it was opened numerous times a day for general use.

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@thatrebbeca, I wouldn't be so sure about a chest freezer just in case. It may not be freezing any more but I would be a bit paranoid incase it does get too cold for them. I would try to find an old second hand fridge

 

[ascott]

Individual rubbermaid totes
Folded up cotton towels or tshirts t make about 5 inch height
Place the tort there and then toss a towel or shirt over them lightly
The rubbermaid is placed into a dark cool closet
The closet is located in a room in the house that use to be an attached
garage...
The vents for the forced heat is closed so no heat goes to the room
The room / closet then remains anywhere from mid to high 40s to no more than 50-55 ish at max from time to time...
They rest comfortably until the temps in the room rise above 55 steadily...
During their rest I will quietly sneak in with my dim light and will tickle their foot and listen for the clear breath...
That is about it.

 

[peasinapod]

AW: What's your brumation container/location?

He gets his own fridge due to several reasons:
1. We are 4 people in our household
1.1 No space
1.2 The fridge is opened constantly, which would bother Peter.
2. We had problems with our normal fridge. Sometimes you open it to find everyhing frozen through. I don't want Peter to end up the same way as the chicken breast.
3. The new fridge has no freezer compartement. So it won't be able to go as dangerously low.

I will open the fridge once a week for air-exchange and to check if the substrate is still humid.

Ugh! I'm so nervous! This will be the first fridge hibernation we will be doing!


Sent from my GT-I9100 using TortForum mobile app

 

[thatrebecca]

I plan to keep the freezer unplugged -- to just use it for the insulation, not the refrigeration.

Angela, how often do you do the toe tickling check? Knowing me I'd be tempted to do it twice a day cause I'm such a ninny.

 

[ascott]

Angela, how often do you do the toe tickling check

When they first go in the sleeping quarters..I do it about once a week...then progress that to about once every 2 to 3 weeks...depending on what my gut tells me....and if all is cleared hiss/breath sound then I back away and leave them be....if I were to hear wet raspy sound then I would bring the tort out to warm up and remain up....

 

[lynnedit]

For our Horsfield male tortoise, I monitored temps in our attached garage during the winter, and it went up into the high 50's too often. That, or an extra unheated room or shed would have been my preference.
So I used a wine cooler in our basement. It has a built in digital thermostat that you can set. I added a back up thermometer as an extra precaution.
Container was a plastic bin with topsoil and sphagnum moss on top, lightly moistened with air holes.
I opened the door every 2 days, and weighed him weekly, mainly because his weight was on the low side when he went in.
Worked great!.

PS. It is possible that a chest freezer (off) would work in my garage and keep temps inside stable enough. I will give that some thought.