I have an ornate box turtle who’s been coming out on days below 50F...and today was cold, rainy and in the 40s.
Some background; she hibernated in the backyard in West Texas for over 10 years. I moved to Central Texas and overwintered her indoors until May, when I finally put her in an 8x4 outdoor enclosure.
I stopped feeding her 2 weeks into October and prepared a corner for her to hibernate in. Put some more organic topsoil in there, dug up the soil to where it was friable, then put a pile of dead leaves on top of that. There’s also a shade cloth over that area.
She’s only semi-buried herself a few times and she’s been periodically coming out of the pile to sit outside or in a clay half-pot. I’m worried something’s wrong with her or the hibernation conditions are wrong...or that she’s going to be caught out on a freezing night and die. Her eyes are clear and there’s no runny nose or anything. What should I do? I’ve attached pictures of the enclosure to sort of illustrate what’s going on here. She’s choosing to stay under a clay pot in 40F weather instead of her leaf pile. I’d really appreciate someone helping me figure this out...
Some background; she hibernated in the backyard in West Texas for over 10 years. I moved to Central Texas and overwintered her indoors until May, when I finally put her in an 8x4 outdoor enclosure.
I stopped feeding her 2 weeks into October and prepared a corner for her to hibernate in. Put some more organic topsoil in there, dug up the soil to where it was friable, then put a pile of dead leaves on top of that. There’s also a shade cloth over that area.
She’s only semi-buried herself a few times and she’s been periodically coming out of the pile to sit outside or in a clay half-pot. I’m worried something’s wrong with her or the hibernation conditions are wrong...or that she’s going to be caught out on a freezing night and die. Her eyes are clear and there’s no runny nose or anything. What should I do? I’ve attached pictures of the enclosure to sort of illustrate what’s going on here. She’s choosing to stay under a clay pot in 40F weather instead of her leaf pile. I’d really appreciate someone helping me figure this out...
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