Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Graffham
I know that I am replying to an historical post but it seems to be the most relevant one.
After years of hibernating my adult trio of Hermanns in a drinks chiller, I decided last year to offer the opportunity for them to dig down and hibernate naturally in a greenhouse. Two of of the tortoises dug down in the greenhouse soil on 10th and 19th October 2020 respectively and the remaining female who always slows down a lot later just wouldn't dig down and had to be placed in the drinks chiller.
Using the drinks chiller, I usually restrict the hibernation to 16 weeks. However now two of my tortoises have dug themselves down naturally, I am wondering if it will be best to leave them to emerge when the the weather warms up or to dig them up and start using the greenhouse heating.
The greenhouse remains mainly unheated through the winter and only heated if the temperature drops below freezing or during long spells of very low temperatures.
One of the females is only about 3 inches below the surface of the soil and the smaller male is a bit deeper.
Past experience has shown that in some years after bringing the tortoises out of the fridge into the heated enclosure, they will try and dig down to continue hibernating.
I am keen to learn of other tortoises keepers (especially Sandy's) experience of natural hibernation and the duration.
Many thanks
Steve Graffham
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My tortoises have been doing this for over 20yrs.
They go down when they want to ( after the wind down) and they dont all go down at the same time. There is always one who hangs about longer, but a cold spell usually gets them down.
They come up when they want to, usually the soil starts to crack where they went down. Once one is up, I fence off a part of the GH and put a light on. So it does not rush the others, and the one has a heat sorce:0)
They all go down different levels in mine:0)