Quote:
Originally Posted by CherryBrandy
That is a difficult one isn't it because there are so many factors. We over feed our tortoises by 300% it is estimated, but not in a bad way, not sure how you would measure it all. One of my tortoises who came to me was routinely given sausages and toast - she lived to 80 odd, I had corrected her diet and I hibernated her as she always had been and she died coming out of hibernation - was that me ? the conditions? her previous husbandry? old age? I still wonder if I had done something different she would have lived but I will never know and that's what hurts.
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There are lots of stories of torts living to 70 and 80 years old and it's unlikely that they have been hibernated in fridges or fed a 'correct' diet. I read somewhere that in the wild 30 is the average age of a Hermann but then thousands won't make it through the first year so that will knock the average down hugely. There's plenty we don't know like does not hibernating shorten their lives. If they are active for 12 months a year instead of 9 are their lives being shortened or are they actually gaining an extra 3 months of life per year, who's to say?
Does fridge hibernation have an adverse effect, how would we know other than wait 30 years and see what happens.
Simply by taking them from where they would naturally be found means almost everything we do for them or give them is unnatural to them. The climate is different, soil is different, weeds are different, UVB levels are different and hibernation is different even if allowed to hibernate naturally. So who knows what's best, nobody.. yet.