Boxies right now ?

[edwardbo]

Hello turtle family , can any members living in colder parts of the country explain what your outside boxies are doing right now . We had snow last week and 60-70 degree weather this week .when the cold weather hit I gathered up my boxie collection and as in previous years put them to bed in a basement that stays dead on 40-45 degrees all winter .usually I leave them out longer . My question is should I put them back out side or leave them in their bins ?
How deep do they need to be ? I've never found them to dug in deeper than six inches .over the years I've been told they only need to be a couple of inches down yet other sources say below the three foot frost line. I'd would appreciate any input from other members living in the colder parts of the country....Terry O ,if your out there would you explain how deep your cave bottom is .

 

[edwardbo]

I forgot to say thank you .

 

[pfara]

Here's @terryo 's thread about what she does:

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/outside-hibernation.34846/

 

[terryo]

I'm sorry. I just saw this. All mine are dug under now for about two weeks. The male Pi was the last to go down with Milton the Gulf Coast. The four little ones have their own little garden and are down now too. We had a few warm days, and I saw Pi come up for a few hours, but he's down now....hopefully for good for the rest of the Winter. I really don't know how far down they dig, but I do loosen the soil down about two feet. It's really soft soil in the cave, from all the years of putting leaf litter in there. I always top it off with the pine hay. It's getting harder and harder to find the pine hay now as there aren't any dead pine trees in the woods here any more. I guess I'll have to go looking for more woods next year. The only ones I took inside this year is the little Gulf Coast who's only a little over a year old, and the one that was rescued from a class room and can't close his shell all the way. Even though they are inside they will slow down now and I won't see them for a few weeks. After a few days, I'll take them out and soak them and offer them food. The baby usually will eat something, but the rescue just digs back under the moss. The one's outside hibernating I stop feed about two weeks before they dig down. Once I stop feeding them, I don't give them any more food even if they come up on a warm day.
There are some people who say that they only need a few inches and others say that they need to go down below the frost line. Mine have an option to do what they want, as it's deep enough for them to go down two or more feet, and if they want they can just go down into the leaf litter. The cave is a little higher than the rest of the garden so the rain doesn't puddle there. This is what Tom from TurtleTails.com does.

http://turtle_tails.tripod.com/raisingbabyturtles/tour11.htm

Click here: Hibernation of Pet Turtles

 

[TortsNTurtles]

This thread is so helpful. Thanks