Natural hibernation..ish

[sprakey34]

Hi,
For the past 5 years I have used a fridge to hibernate my 4 Hermanns but feel the fridge is on it's way out. Before I buy a new fridge I was thinking of other ways to hibernate. I would love to allow them to do their own thing naturally but living in the South of England it is far too cold and wet. One thing I did wonder about was to allow them to hibernate in a large black plastic dustbin filled loosely with soil/sand with wire over the top to stop rats and placed in a brick shed. I have thermometres in the shed at the moment to see what sort of temps it holds. Would soil be able to hold a steadier temperature that the box inside a box method. What do others think of this idea please.
Thanks in advance.
Meriel.

[Herpard]

Hi,

I wouldn't risk it. Letting them hibernate naturally puts them at an higher risk of dying.

Rats and mice can get into brick built sheds btw. They can gnaw through metal.

Then there's the risk of frost damage.

[Suze65]

You can hibernate your torts without using a fridge, there are quite a few of us who do, I've been doing it with mine for 40 years with no disasters. Not sure about the plastic bin idea, a solid wood hibernation box would be better, some people line the inside with insulation, I use shredded paper as a bedding material, but I think you can you soil. You say you are monitoring the temps in there now. Keep the box off the floor, be sure the temps in there won't fall too low in the coldest weather or or go up too much in mild weather. Some people use concrete out buildings or brick, cold rooms, cold attic rooms ( not the attic) .

[wigwamman]

you could use the bin as described in your post,then bury it in a corner of the garden,this would keep them dry and frost free and able to dig up or down as they wish.
good luck digging a 3ft hole!!

[burnt toast]

I think Paul 16 shells looked into or did this using a solid pond liner type thing filled with soil? It also reminded me of a post I saw on rfuk where they had dug a deep chamber & let their tort hibernate in this each year, im fairly sure they used hey! & reason for posting was during this particular year she had had a lodger- a hedgehog!! Will have to see if I can find it.

Soil I would imagine would keep the temps more stable but it would be hard to spot if tort had wee'd.

I use box method (have used fridge) in a concrete cool building have sectioned an area off & made a 6 x 4 "den" insulated all walls, floor, celing well with thick polystrene & they are double boxed then placed in wooden box's. I have just a 2 foot tubular heater on a thermostat & find this keeps the temp around 5 fine.

[burnt toast]

Here is that post:
http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/forum...rahs-home.html

maybe you could do similar but fill with soil?