Concern, tortoise keep burying herself

07921sarah

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Hi, I'm after some advice please my 5 year old female hermann has always buried herself from time to time but has all of a sudden started to bury herself all the time I get her out every 2-3 days for a bath and once I have dug her up and bathed her she'll quite happily wonder around the house for a couple of hours and eat but once she is back in her own enclosure she normally heads into her hide and buries herself within an hour or so and she doesn't come out again until I did her up again for her next bath is this normal behaviour?
Further details
Never hibernated as never been quite heavy enough come winter she is now 10.5 cm and weighs 259grams
We have her in an open top enclosure and we use a 100 watt mega ray bulb any help or advice would be very much appreciated.
 

wellington

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Do you have any other heat source other then the one bulb? My only guess is it's too cold.
 

07921sarah

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Do you have any other heat source other then the one bulb? My only guess is it's too cold.
Hi thank you for your reply. no other heat source but I have checked the temp and it's at 30c under the lamp slightly cooler at the other end of her enclosure, I don't think it cold that's making her do it as she has always been slightly backwards and seems to be far more active in slightly colder weather oct-march and then less active and more likely to hide or bury herself in the warmer months April-sept and also seems to loose or at least not gain weight during the summer and then puts on weight and grows more during the winter part of the reason I haven't hibernated her as she's never heavy enough at the right time.
 

THBfriend

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That looks quite dark. Maybe you could move the enclosure to a window that gets sunlight during the day. Or install more lamps - not necessarily special UV/all-in-one lamps, just bright ones. Tortoises not only need warmth, but also brightness. They associate the two, because sunlight in their natural habitat is both bright and warm, of course. When there's less and less light, like now in autumn, they get less active and prepare for hibernation. Talking about hibernation, how do you know that your tortoise isn't "heavy enough"? Tortoises don't need to fatten up before hibernation. As long as they are healthy, they can hibernate regardless of their weight - unless they really are underweight, but that's unlikely for a pet tortoise.
 

07921sarah

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I have been following the Jackson ratio for weight and as she wasn't in the ideal weight section took advice not to hibernate her. I will try repositioning nearer to a window although the room she is in is very bright during the early part of the day this picture does make it look a lot darker than it actually is
 

THBfriend

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I see. Well, you should take the Jackson ratio with a grain of salt, particularly for young and small tortoises. If your SCL measurement is off by just one millimeter, it can already put you into the "underweight" or "overweight" category - not very reliable. If you show a photo of your tortoise and post its age, weight, and approximate SCL, people here could tell you whether it is too light or not, based on their animals.
 

07921sarah

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Hi johnsonnboswell. The bulb is only about 10 weeks old.
Thank you for the info tbh friend.
 

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