View Single Post
Old 22-03-2018, 02:05 PM   #1
Alan1
Super Moderator
Adult
 
Alan1's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Sunny Scotland
Posts: 21,512
Default The six and a half month hibernation

One of my torts went down on 6th or 8th September I think it was and the other one a month later after a cold summer last year. So that's six and a half months and five and a half months. We have had a few warmer days so decided to take the insulation off. The soil was disturbed but they had obviously be up to the surface and went down again at some point on warmer days. I decided to get them out as I could feel them not far below the surface.

Got them out and they had their eyes open in a minute or so. I let them gradually warm up a bit (this is all in the greenhouse). I put them by the water dish and eventually after about an hour one of them went and sat in the dish for about 20 minutes before I put them both in a basin of 'room temp' water to sit for another half hour. One of them had a few sips of water eventually but they were content to sit there and soak up the water which eventually spread up their legs, neck and head as if it were blotting paper, It also moved up their shells in the same way which I can't say I've ever really noticed before.

I was a bit worried about the length of time they were in there but the weather has only just improved in the past two days after months of minus temps and snow. We are to get more again next week too. Given the fact they have obviously moved around in the soil I wouldn't be keen to use the fridge method. *Edited to just have links to the images as they were too big on the forum.

https://i.imgur.com/rJ5m8Ky.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/oBnmLw5.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/E4RM3eM.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/y2Vnj9M.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/dfgg9Lz.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/jDLQbpc.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/VeOkcnG.jpg

Last edited by Alan1; 22-03-2018 at 09:42 PM.
Alan1 is offline   Reply With Quote