Hibernation help please! don't know what to do!
 

Hi All,

Ok, she's a five old Horsfield hibernating for the first time. We've moved and the climate here is definitely damper in the winter, she's double-boxed in layers of dried leaves and dried soil in an out-house where my brother-in-law's tortoises are, but they're Hermans and more used to the climate. The temperature was around 8 in the daytime, lower at night, but now it's dropping to 5ish.

She's been down for a week and isn't frantic but is coming up above the soil in the daytime before burrowing at night. I'm worried that she isn't hibernating properly and will use up all her energy. She was well bathed and I tapered her food down to nothing two weeks before she went down.

Is this normal? At what point should I just take her out of there and over-winter her? Bit nervous.... hef x

They do go up/down responding to temperatures naturally (when colder they dig deeper) So nothing to worry about there. Horsfield's are one of the hardest to settle into hibernation. I would say all is well & personally I would leave her:)

5c or near is ideal for hibernation however I hope there's a low wattage heater in the shed in case the temps go lower, 8c is verging on being to warm, try to keep the building around 5c by covereing windows etc or insulating the area where the torts are. The heater should be on a thermostat set at say 4c and max 6c that way it should kick and out at the right temps.

To help keep a horsfield down in hibernation, you need a short time (a day) at lower than 5c. Horsfields have much lower temps in the wild when hibernating. So for the first week you could easily go down to 4c to make sure he/she stays down.
8c is far too high for horsfields, they need constant 4-5c 24hrs a day, otherwise they will wake.