[Wolflore]

Hi folks,

I put this directly to another member but have yet to hear back so I thought I'd open it up to debate with the whole forum.

So, I'm not going to hibernate. I've done my research and come to my own conclusions. Here's what I plan to do and where.

Spike lives mostly in/on a tortoise table. The substrate is a sand/topsoil mix. The room where he lives is not centrally heated. Nor is the rest of the flat. During the winter we have a couple of low wattage heaters running constantly so that the temps in the flat never drop too low. We also have a gas fire in the sitting room which ups ambient temps throughout the flat a little when we're in. The tort table is about 5' x 4' with quite high sides which seems to hold the heat well. Basking temp is currently kept around the 35c mark from 6am to 7pm. Then the heat/light is turned off and ambient temps take over for the night. Recent research (mine) has turned up the fact torts often can have night time temperature drops of up to 20c in their native ranges. Heating during the day is provided by a Solar Glo 125w. Temps around the table range from 35 at basking, 25-27 near to, and furthest points being around 21-22. I'm going to buy a max/min thermometer to keep an eye on night time temps. Feeding is not being reduced. I'm allowing him to decide how much he wants to eat. If night time, or even daytime temps are low at the moment he tends to dig in, but currently he's sleeping in his normal 'road kill' pose behind the spider plant. Sometimes he seems to want a bit of extra warmth so will bed down under his hide which is nearer to the basking spot - he still goes road kill though. So my plan is to let him do his own thing. I did contemplate dropping the basking spot temp down to 30c but I'm unsure on this one. My reasoning was that winter max daytime temps would be lower than summer. But then I also think that I should leave it at 35c to combat the lower nightime temps. I figure he can move himself - as he does now - to find his best spots over the winter. Food would still be provided, but I did have thoughts that I should maybe suspend/reduce feeding over the deepest darkest months of winter as he probably wouldn't be out much anyway. Then the other half of me thinks to just keep offering him food and let him decide that to. Metabolic rates would be kept up due to the availability of his basking spot. What do folks think? Do you have any experience either way?