Hello Turtle-Friends,
i'm completely new to this forum and hope this belongs here.
I'm searching desperately for an good advice what to do and what not to do.
I have my lovely greek tortoise now for 26 years and he is my oldest friend.
Usually my mother used to take care of him because she has a house with a big and safe garden for him to live at. The last weeks my mothers health went drastically down so she couldn't take care of my tortoise any longer.
We do live in middle Europe and outside we have on daytime 18-23 C° and at nighttime it goes down to 12-19 C° at the moment.
The first time my tortoise dig himself in at the garden was around the 8.October but the Temperature went up and he woke up and did some small eatings but just came out of his house for heating up in the sun. On 17.October or 18.October he dug himself again inside the ground when it was a bit colder than now. To take care of him I took him to my home on 22.October and placed him inside his terrarium with lights off and heats off. He didn't moved and still slept and on 23.October I gave him a short bath to clean him up where he waked up for a little. After that I placed him in his hibernation box inside of my basement like my mom does every year on her basement. I'm now really worried about my little tortoise because it's still really warm for this time of the year and it's getting warmer and on the next week the weather report says the degrees could go up to around 25 C° at my area. I'm really poor and my fridge is broken for more than a half year and i couldn't afford a new one so to put him into my fridge was no really option. But i passed an important exam this week and will get a little money from our state for passing it so i want to buy a new fridge when the money is likely to arrive in the next 10-14 days.
Now to my questions-what can i do to help my tortoise getting properly through the winter?
Should I put him in my fridge when I get the new one? Should I wake him up again till I get the fridge? Do I let him sleep in the basement until he wakes up on his own? Could he starve while sleeping or would he wake up?
This questions may seem stupid but it's the first time for me taking care of him on my own and I don't want my little guy to get hurt. I just realized how much my mother took care of him and how little I know about my own pet. I'm just really worried that his metabolism don't went down enough and that it harms him in any way. I do look for him twice a day and he didn't moved any in his box since I sat him inside of his hibernation box. I read some forum posts but couldn't find any good advices and I can't stop worrying about him.
Please give me some advice-I'm complete alone and don't have anyone else to ask for help.
Sorry for my bad english and thanks a lot for taking the time to read and maybe helping me, I'm thankful for every good advice <3
i'm completely new to this forum and hope this belongs here.
I'm searching desperately for an good advice what to do and what not to do.
I have my lovely greek tortoise now for 26 years and he is my oldest friend.
Usually my mother used to take care of him because she has a house with a big and safe garden for him to live at. The last weeks my mothers health went drastically down so she couldn't take care of my tortoise any longer.
We do live in middle Europe and outside we have on daytime 18-23 C° and at nighttime it goes down to 12-19 C° at the moment.
The first time my tortoise dig himself in at the garden was around the 8.October but the Temperature went up and he woke up and did some small eatings but just came out of his house for heating up in the sun. On 17.October or 18.October he dug himself again inside the ground when it was a bit colder than now. To take care of him I took him to my home on 22.October and placed him inside his terrarium with lights off and heats off. He didn't moved and still slept and on 23.October I gave him a short bath to clean him up where he waked up for a little. After that I placed him in his hibernation box inside of my basement like my mom does every year on her basement. I'm now really worried about my little tortoise because it's still really warm for this time of the year and it's getting warmer and on the next week the weather report says the degrees could go up to around 25 C° at my area. I'm really poor and my fridge is broken for more than a half year and i couldn't afford a new one so to put him into my fridge was no really option. But i passed an important exam this week and will get a little money from our state for passing it so i want to buy a new fridge when the money is likely to arrive in the next 10-14 days.
Now to my questions-what can i do to help my tortoise getting properly through the winter?
Should I put him in my fridge when I get the new one? Should I wake him up again till I get the fridge? Do I let him sleep in the basement until he wakes up on his own? Could he starve while sleeping or would he wake up?
This questions may seem stupid but it's the first time for me taking care of him on my own and I don't want my little guy to get hurt. I just realized how much my mother took care of him and how little I know about my own pet. I'm just really worried that his metabolism don't went down enough and that it harms him in any way. I do look for him twice a day and he didn't moved any in his box since I sat him inside of his hibernation box. I read some forum posts but couldn't find any good advices and I can't stop worrying about him.
Please give me some advice-I'm complete alone and don't have anyone else to ask for help.
Sorry for my bad english and thanks a lot for taking the time to read and maybe helping me, I'm thankful for every good advice <3
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