I cry hard
New Member
Hello!
I am pretty new to tortoise keeping and this year it will be my first year of letting my tortoises hibernate.
I read that 4 weeks prior to their hibernation they shouldn't eat anything. I also saw a video saying you could do such thing about 3 weeks (or even 2) prior to hibernation.
I went for 3 weeks.
Now, I am soaking my tortoises every 2 days (some days I just can't really make it), so it would be: Today bathing (if possible tomorrow aswell, if not ->) and then a day not and the following day I bathe them again etc.
My concern is this: I haven't fed my tortoises for over a week now (but have been bathing them), but they lost a lot of weight.
This is how their statistics look right now, compared to 3 weeks earlier:
I will name one tortoise: black tortoise and the other one yellow tortoise, so you can distinguish them.
Their race is a testudo hermanni
Usual temperatures (summer time): 29 degrees celsius
After starting to prepare them for hibernation: 21 degrees celsius
Next week I want to put them in a room temperature of 17 degrees celsius
Going into hibernation begin of november: 5 degrees celsius (fridge method)
Before I stopped actively feeding them (I reduced their food in the 2 weeks prior to not giving them any food at all, because the temperature in their enclosure was also reduced):
Black tortoise weight: 108/109 g
black tortoise length: 7,8 cm
Yellow tortoise weight: 144 g
Yellow tortoise length: 8,9 cm
Black tortoise jackson ratio: 0.22
Yellow tortoise jackson ratio: 0.20
After one week without feeding them:
Black tortoise weight: 97 g
Black tortoise length: 8,3 cm
Yellow tortoise weight: 124 g
Yellow tortoise length: 8,9 cm
Black tortoise jackson ratio: 0.18
Yellow tortoise jackson ratio: 0.19
My questions are:
- By the time they want to hibernate, is it even safe to do so, or have they lost way too much bodyfat etc. to safely hibernate?
- Should I not reduce the food when I lower the temperature (aka, was this a mistake)? Should I basically give them a time gap where they can feed themselves like bears?
I am pretty new to tortoise keeping and this year it will be my first year of letting my tortoises hibernate.
I read that 4 weeks prior to their hibernation they shouldn't eat anything. I also saw a video saying you could do such thing about 3 weeks (or even 2) prior to hibernation.
I went for 3 weeks.
Now, I am soaking my tortoises every 2 days (some days I just can't really make it), so it would be: Today bathing (if possible tomorrow aswell, if not ->) and then a day not and the following day I bathe them again etc.
My concern is this: I haven't fed my tortoises for over a week now (but have been bathing them), but they lost a lot of weight.
This is how their statistics look right now, compared to 3 weeks earlier:
I will name one tortoise: black tortoise and the other one yellow tortoise, so you can distinguish them.
Their race is a testudo hermanni
Usual temperatures (summer time): 29 degrees celsius
After starting to prepare them for hibernation: 21 degrees celsius
Next week I want to put them in a room temperature of 17 degrees celsius
Going into hibernation begin of november: 5 degrees celsius (fridge method)
Before I stopped actively feeding them (I reduced their food in the 2 weeks prior to not giving them any food at all, because the temperature in their enclosure was also reduced):
Black tortoise weight: 108/109 g
black tortoise length: 7,8 cm
Yellow tortoise weight: 144 g
Yellow tortoise length: 8,9 cm
Black tortoise jackson ratio: 0.22
Yellow tortoise jackson ratio: 0.20
After one week without feeding them:
Black tortoise weight: 97 g
Black tortoise length: 8,3 cm
Yellow tortoise weight: 124 g
Yellow tortoise length: 8,9 cm
Black tortoise jackson ratio: 0.18
Yellow tortoise jackson ratio: 0.19
My questions are:
- By the time they want to hibernate, is it even safe to do so, or have they lost way too much bodyfat etc. to safely hibernate?
- Should I not reduce the food when I lower the temperature (aka, was this a mistake)? Should I basically give them a time gap where they can feed themselves like bears?