Quote:
Originally Posted by Alan1
My torts were still going about in the outside enclosure in late October, at least in the covered area which is covered with the greenhouse type plastic that allows UV through (remind me the name of it please as I might get some new stuff). They were digging down and reappearing daily until only one of them was popping up then finally both were down. I monitored the temperatures and checked the weather forecast every day and intended bringing them in when frost arrived but frost didn't happen at that time. The rain started then failed to stop really, they were under cover and under ground but I was worried that the ground was becoming so wet everywhere that it would eventually spread to where they were so I decided to dig them up, they were both in the same spot, one on top of the other in fact, this was early December so they'd been down 4 or 5 weeks.
I kept them in their tables in an unheated room without putting the lamps on and covered one end. They stayed there under cover but during some of the mild weather in December they came out a couple of times. Food and water was available and one of them had a drink but neither of them ate anything. The weather got a bit colder and they stayed under cover until one appeared last Thursday then the other on Sunday which was the first really bright sunny day for ages
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I am sure this happens in the wild too.
Now I live in Kent, and mine went down (in the GH) around the end of October. And are just beginning to move the soil around them, so it wont be long before they are up. But temps here are still quite cold (we have been spoil in previous years with much warmer weather) for us. So this will be the longest hibernation they have had in over 20ys of natural hibernation.