Hibernation panic!

[Dan]

Hi all, I'm hoping someone is able to offer some advice.

I have very recently hibernated my 2 year old hermans using the fridge method, but am concerned that she did not respond to the winding down period in the same way she did this time last year. I'm worried that perhaps she was not fit for hibernation..

The main differences between this year and last are:

-Last year, she naturally slowed down, even before I started altering her daylight hours and temps, whereas this year, she was still very much active, even 1-2 weeks into the winding down period. Last year felt much more 'natural' - this year seems a bit forced.

-Last year, as well as slowing down, she became quite disinterested in food, whereas this year this did not happen at all. She was behaving as if it was mid summer.

-Last year, she would frequently dig herself deep into the substrate and often remain there for the entire day, whereas for the last 3-4 months I have not seen her dig at all!! she doesn't even use the hide to sleep in.


Before hibernating her this year, I checked her weight-length against the Jackson Ratio - no problems there...
I wound her down slowly over a period of just under 4 weeks, no food, reduced daylight hours, frequent baths, putting her in a colder room etc and last week placed put her into fridge hibernation at exactly 5 degrees.

However, I checked on her 2 days into hibernation and she hadn't dug herself in at all.. she was just sitting on top of the substrate. (I do have a lid placed loosely on top. Last year she naturally dug herself in almost immediately.


She just doesn't seem like she wants to hibernate, and the lack of slowing down, and her reluctance to dig is a big big worry for me. Should I be worried?

There was a period of about a month and a half during the summer where she did not have access to a heat/UV lamp, due to a number of difficulties I had with replacing a broken one. Could it be that this has thrown her body clock out of sync, and this is why she didn't naturally slow down during november/december? This still wouldn't explain the lack of burrowing.

Any ideas?? Would be really appreciated

Thanks,

Dan