Hibernation Poo
 

After 4 and a half weeks in his fridge, Jerry passed a small poo yesterday.
It's not something I'm particularly worried about, but it does throw up some questions.
He was wound down over a period of 20 days which I'd have thought more than adequate for a 79g Tortoise to clear his system.
I can only surmise that he ate some of his poo during this period.
His temps have been no higher than 6 degrees throughout the hibernation so surely this also suggests that the metabolism still operates at hibernation temperature.
Anyway, he's staying in the fridge, and the weight of his poo (yes, I weighed it, at 0.4g :razz:) will be taken into account on his weekly weigh-in.

Sometimes food still remains in the intestines, which is not a problem in hibernation. And can be quite normal:0)
It urination thats the problem:0)

From what I can remember of some of the arguments on here years ago, food can't do any harm once it is far enough along the digestive tract.

Ed took a more extreme view of course. He said that food won't rot in a vacuum at 6 degrees centigrade. I'm not suggesting anyone hibernate a tort with a full stomach but I don't remember explaining how food can rot in vacuum at 6C.

Makes sense to me, Jonathan.
I also wouldn't suggest full stomach hibernation, but the wind down period does seem overly artificial to me.
I just can't visualise a wild tortoise suddenly stopping eating at the thought of impending cold weather. There will always be some food around, and I just think an active tortoise would want to eat...even if the weather has cooled enough for the tortoise to be active for a very short time in the day.
In fact, AH has studied hibernating tortoises emerging, feeding and then digging down again...Throws a few theories out the window.

I suppose the wind down is just another captive compromise that errs on the side of safety, for good reason.

I agree with you there Keith. My thinking is that if we keep a tortoise warm and hungry for too long then not only does everything in the system get digested, but the tortoise will start to use up the reserves that it needs for hibernation.

That reminds me that the warm baths are not natural either and might purge the tortoise digestive system of food matter which hasn't been fully digested. I don't do any warm baths on wind down but I do some tepid ones for hydration.

yes its an interesting debate isn't it because it can be scarey stories to new tortoise keepers that their tortoise will blow up with rotting vegetation caught inside. I knew a tortoise that hibernated on top of a wardrobe for years in a normal heated house to no ill effects, and others back in the day in London were just left in the garden. Appreciate husbandry and knowledge is far more advanced but I agree with the baths, I have never ever bathed prior to hibernation, only for hydration and that's particularly rare when they are outdoors as you only have to look at a humidity guage and its towards 100 % in autumn time. There must be a pre cursor that if you do everything right and the tortoise still doesn't make it its down to the Tortoise make up and health and not necessarily the process.

This is what I have been lead to believe, that they don't empty the digestive tracked completely, but as long as it far down the gut, it won't rot and kill them. Mine have always wound down naturally ( except the babies) my old ones have just got on with it by themselves for the last 45 years, and they haven't died yet, and I wouldn't know if the gut is fully empty or not.