Eating hemp when winding down for hibernation

[Bride2b]

HI

As it is day 6 of the wind down ready for hibernation, my torts have started eating hemp is this normal?


Tanya

[Dazza]

LOL thats funny - not seen it myself but then i dont tend to use to much hemp anyway - could it e you have scraps of food mixed in with the hemp or the smell of food on the hemp and thats what they could be after ??

Dazza

[sandy]

I dont think so Darren, Bramble my first ever hatchling, is a real pig. When winding her down
two years running she was eating the hemp (I dont use it now) newspaper, whatever she
could put her beak around<g>.

[helen1]

Well..mine eat hemp if indoors and I am late with food...you know how it is. Two days running my TGI 3yr olds tucked into soil!! and the filthiest piece of cuttlefish they could find..imagine if I didnt feed them!!!

[ME SHELL]

Mine done the same after about 5 days of winding down. The reason I started to wind him down was because he stopped eating then after about 5 days he went looking for food and started to eat the hemp and oyster shell He didn't eat much though, I think he was trying his luck, he made me feel really guilty.

[Bride2b]

Thanks for your replies, they havent seem to eat it today and its day 7 of their wind down, so hopefully everything is slowing down.

[EJ]

Could mean your tortoise is trying to tell you something... it's hungry and will eat anything.

On a side note...

During the Fall I notice my tortoises will eat the dried fallen leaves even though they have grass and greens available. Do you think maybe they are filling their gut for the winter slowdown?

Originally Posted by Bride2b

HI

As it is day 6 of the wind down ready for hibernation, my torts have started eating hemp is this normal?


Tanya

[Bride2b]

Hi

Yep I know that they are hungry but I cant hibernate them with food in their guts.

[Pussygalore]

well I know that mine had full stomachs before they started the windown, they've been without since Saturday and again are spending all their time hunting for something to eat, so what are you saying ED that I start feeding them again and put the whole pre hibernation process of for a few more weeks, if you did hibernate any of yours and I know you don't do many do you let them go down with full stomachs ? if not don't yours get hungry when you stop the same as ours, my adults stopped feeding themselves and I hope eventually the babies will do the same but in the meantime if I let them carry on eating and wait for the weather to cool down which isn't helping at the moment do you then suggest that I just stick them in a box or fridge with full guts or what if we don't get the cold weather its supposed to stay warm for a few more days yet, what if it doesn't come untill after christmas they'd only have a few weeks of hibernation then untill it was time to wake them up, maybe in the US you still have distinct seasons well we've seemed to have lost them the last few years so have no choice but to do ourselves what the weather is refusing to do, maybe in the future we will have to rethink the whole process but I for one want to hibernate all of mine this year so hungry they must go and I just have to not look at them.

[Bride2b]

Hi

They have stopped eating hemp and looking for food, they do enjoy their daily baths and really absorb the water which is good, they seem to be getting into the swing of it, so not much longer to go before they go into their hibernation, I am allowing them 4 weeks which should be ample time to clear their guts, and we are into week 2 now.

Tanya