2.5yo Started brumation on his own in outdoor enclosure...

[tortoisecanyon]

This will be our hermann's third winter and his first real attempt at brumation. He turned his nose up at most food over the past few weeks, except a few bites of dandelion greens here and there, including in the 2-3 days before he burrowed. He has now buried himself in his substrate (mostly peat moss) much deeper than a normal nap, around 6-8 inches down. He is healthy and was persistent about brumating even though I tried to keep him awake. Our nighttime temps are in the mid 40's but the daytime temps still get into the mid-high 60's. His enclosure gets only 2-3 hours of partial sun right now because of the winter angle, so not terribly warm in most of it, and he has a log hide as well as an extra plywood lean-to type covering over where he is buried. My main concerns are 1) I'm pretty sure he ate a few bites of food and I keep reading about gut rot, and 2) just that it's his first time (and my first time) with brumation and while there is a wire mesh liner at the bottom of his substrate, I don't know if he might get stuck or anything. Can I relocate him without waking him up? Or should I try and wake him up and keep him inside until he is free and clear of any digestion?

 

[wellington]

Thread 'Tom's Brumation Thread' https://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/toms-brumation-thread.201823/

Read that thread above

 

[Tom]

This will be our hermann's third winter and his first real attempt at brumation. He turned his nose up at most food over the past few weeks, except a few bites of dandelion greens here and there, including in the 2-3 days before he burrowed. He has now buried himself in his substrate (mostly peat moss) much deeper than a normal nap, around 6-8 inches down. He is healthy and was persistent about brumating even though I tried to keep him awake. Our nighttime temps are in the mid 40's but the daytime temps still get into the mid-high 60's. His enclosure gets only 2-3 hours of partial sun right now because of the winter angle, so not terribly warm in most of it, and he has a log hide as well as an extra plywood lean-to type covering over where he is buried. My main concerns are 1) I'm pretty sure he ate a few bites of food and I keep reading about gut rot, and 2) just that it's his first time (and my first time) with brumation and while there is a wire mesh liner at the bottom of his substrate, I don't know if he might get stuck or anything. Can I relocate him without waking him up? Or should I try and wake him up and keep him inside until he is free and clear of any digestion?

He will likely die if you don't take action.

There has to be a month long lead in to brumation where you allow the gut to empty and get the tortoise hydrated.

Peat moss can burn their shell, It should not be used at all, but definitely do not let the tortoise brumate in peat moss.

It is too warm here in SoCal to brumate them outdoors, even up here where I am in Santa Clarita with our winter nights in the 30s. You need a fridge.

In this thread I show a night house with controllable temps that can help get them ready for brumation, and explain the correct care:

The Best Way To Raise Any Temperate Species Of Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies and care for adults? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. What is...

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More here to explain all the conflicting info:

Info For New People. Please Read This First.

Hello and welcome to tortoiseforum.org! We are all glad you are here! There is no other forum like this anywhere. We have tens of thousands of members from all over the world ranging from kids with their first tortoise to people who have been breeding and keeping high end tortoises since the...

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