natural hibernation question
 

I have decided to let my 8-year old Hermans hibernate outdoors this year. He has dug himself down in his coldframe and I checked him 3 weeks ago and he was fine. I am now worried about the length of time he's been there. He dug down in October and is still asleep now. This is nearly 6 months !
Should I dig him up and wake him indoors, or wait and let him do it when he is ready outdoors ? What do you think?
thanks
Julia

Mine did 16 week's some are leaving a bit more, 6 month's seem's a long time to me.

if i was you i would dig him up i mean for a horsfield it might be okay but in the wild hermans do do sleep for this long also i would try letting him go to sleep around november till jan/feb this is better but i think october is quite early and now its getting quite late

the trouble is he won't wake himself untill the weather is a lot warmer and I mean consistantly not just the odd day, so you either have to wake him or wait untill he comes up which might not be untill next month. Many who choose to 'natural' hibernate do so in a greenhouse where the house will warm a lot earlier, I think the tort also needs as much as 18inches of diggable depth to excape the frosts, mine are still boxed up and will be woken next week they will have had 20 weeks.

The whole point of natural hibernation was that he can put himsself down when he was ready. There was no way I could have kept him up for longer, as he was just digging in every day.
I really want to avoid bringing him indoors for waking up, as he hates it so much and just tries to get out of his box all the time. If I leave him longer is he likely to starve?

Hi Julia, I have an Ibera still down in the greenhouse, she has done approx 16 weeks and if she's not up by the end of the weekend i'm getting her up. I too would like her to wake up naturally, I like her to be in control but I feel that even 16 weeks is too long really. Another Ibera surfaced this week so it is getting warmer thank goodness.

When they're hibernating their immune system drops so the the longer they are down the less they are able to fight anything off. Some people would say that 12 weeks should be a maximum amount.
Torts that have long hibernations are also reported to be more prone to post hibernation anorexia.

Is there any way you could provide him with a bigger space indoors?

Thanks for your advice.
You got me worried, so I decided to dig him up yesterday and brought him indoors, with lots of soil round him, so that he could wake up slowly. This morning he had dug himself out and I gave him a bath and a scrub. He seemed well, and the most amazing thing is that he lost only 28g in the 6 months dug down. (he weighs over 750g).
In comparison my little ones, who have hibernated shorter and in a fridge, have lost a lot more. I wonder why this would be.
Indeed he was so fit after only 2 hours of waking up that he has already chased the female round the enclosure.
Julia

Glad he's doing ok Julia :razz:

The minimal weightloss is most probably down to lack of dehydration, being in soil rather than in a box in the fridge. When i naturally hibernated some of mine last year I noticed that the weightloss was next to nothing as opposed to the ones boxed up

very interesting, the weight loss comparison