hibernation
 

Its that time of year again!!
Starting to get cold at nights here in the Alps, and the temperatures are bouncing around so I am preparing a pen to put them in at night and wind them down .. in previous years I would do this in the Attic which had windows and in conjunction with their lamps was successful and they would end up in the cave under the house, also with windows, in another pen until they reached 6 degrees and then into a large earth filled box..

However this year I cannot use the attic and I have made a pen in the cellar, there are no windows, it is pitch black in there, I have two mercury vapour lamps in there, on a timer, when the lamps go out it is suddenly pitch black.. It seems very unnatural for them. I am thinking of having a smaller LED bulb on a separate timer to go on for an hour before and after the big lamps ..

What do you reckon ? ...or am I overthinking this LOL!

Lol over thinking I think:0)
Once the they are asleep they dont mind the dark:0)
My tortoises are in the hibernation mode too. They hibernate in my greenhouse. Where light levels can be high. Even with the extra heat at the moment, they are all very slow, and slowly digging in. So to be honest once they are in hibernation mode, heat and light does not matter:0)
If you could you could put a lamp for light on a dimmer switch and gradually reduce light levels.
Its hard to think tortoise, and we all tend to think human not surprising:0)

When I used to keep marine fish I would use a variety of lights to re-create a gradual dawn and dusk. I did this to allow their eyes to adjust to the bright lighting in the morning, rather than just go from dark to very bright. We've all been in that situation where we've been laying in bed and someone's turned on the light and temporarily blinded us, so one could assume that it would stress animals. I do therefore see your thinking, and would probably think of doing the same thing in your situation, whilst winding them down.

Even if you put a small light on they will probably still be asleep as they will wake up with the heat not the light or at least mine do.

I gave up trying with the dimmer as I found they went under the towels in the dark area(small towels used as they were originally recommended on the Tortoise Trust website and they do like going under them).

Bertie is regularly in a deep sleep under the lamp by the end of the day if I have had to use it - warmth and light.

Perhaps they are like us - we can fall asleep in the light, but also just turn the lights out.

one of mine has gone into hibernation already, no surprise considering the crap summer we have had