Young Horsfield & sleeping pattern, waking up ?

[jhb]

Hello all, for those of you in the UK, hope you have all had a nice bank holiday weekend !

Just wanted to ask a couple of things relating to my Horsfield, about his sleeping and waking.
Ralph, my 6 month old, usually takes himself into his hide for sleep between 4- 6 pm and will remain in his hide (I assume asleep for the duration) right around till the morning .. when I wake him up.

I have been waking Ralph up each morning between 6am-8am (depending on what time he went off to sleep, and what time I am up for work), I awake him by gently picking him up and placing him near to his UV/basking light, which seems to gently ease him to awakening.

My question is simply, should I be waking him up ? The only reason I have been, is because on 1 or 2 mornings, he hasn't seemed to wake himself .. so come the early afternoon I felt I should wake him !
Should I carry on ? or should I just leave him to it ?

Many thanks !

Jake

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Jake:

If I have in-the-house tortoises, I always wake them up. For the outside tortoises, I'll just put out the food and move to the next enclosure. They have great sense of smell and most of them come out before I've even cleared the yard.

For sick or in-the-house tortoises, I will fill a tub with warm water, then add the tortoises, and while they're soaking I'll put the food out. When the soak is overwith I place the tortoises in front of the food. I always soak daily for in-the-house tortoises because, in my opinion, if I have a tortoise under lights, he's being dried out internally and needs to be rehydrated daily. So, to answer your question, yes - wake him up.

 

[jhb]

Hi Jake:

If I have in-the-house tortoises, I always wake them up. For the outside tortoises, I'll just put out the food and move to the next enclosure. They have great sense of smell and most of them come out before I've even cleared the yard.

For sick or in-the-house tortoises, I will fill a tub with warm water, then add the tortoises, and while they're soaking I'll put the food out. When the soak is overwith I place the tortoises in front of the food. I always soak daily for in-the-house tortoises because, in my opinion, if I have a tortoise under lights, he's being dried out internally and needs to be rehydrated daily. So, to answer your question, yes - wake him up.

Hello Yvonne,

thank you for the reply ! I shall continue to awake him each morning then.
Just to add, I do soak him for 10-15 minutes every 1/2 days, and I put out a selection of fresh food each morning.

Thanks again, learning more and more each day on this forum !

Jake