Hello all,
I am in Orange County, California. We have a found a desert tortoise walking along the sidewalk back in July. The kids decided they wanted to keep it. After reading up on DTs, we went to a Tortoise Club meeting and received a permit for her. The members guessed that our DT is roughly 7 years old. We took to her to Dr. Greek in Yorba Linda and had her checked out. She was given a clean bill of health.
Long story short, Nobu started to get sluggish and eat less near the end of September. She has the run of our backyard. She has several hides throughout the yard under tall grass. She started coming out less. We would sometimes not see her for several days.
October 9th comes along and we had to evacuate due to the Canyon Fire 2. She actually came out that day around 10am (which is early for her). We boarded her at Dr. Greek's while we were evacuated. We picked her up 2 days later when we were allowed back home We brought her to the backyard. She refused any water and took one bite of her food. She then proceeded to go into her outdoor burrow structure I had built based on the design and recommendation of the president of the Valley Chapter of the CTTC . He told us it is a suitable outside burrow to hibernate her. She's been in there ever since. We were not expecting her to hibernate so soon! It wasn't even that cold yet when she started to slow down.
So we didn't get a chance weigh her as suggested here. We got worried during the heat wave October 22-27 when her burrow temp reached mid 80's since outside was in the 100's. We check on her periodically. Sometimes her head is out and sometimes it's not. Her burrow temp now averages 63-67 with humidity level in the mid 50's now that outside temp range from low 70's to upper 40s. The substrate in her den is a mix of orchid bark, dirt and straw. She has burrowed to the floor of the den with the substrate all around her (she is surrounded by 6-7 inches of substrate.
So we are unsure what to do. The temp is too high? for her to maintain a low enough metabolism according to the articles I've read here and elsewhere. Should we take her out and try to offer her water? Should I spray some water into the substrate to increase the humiditiy? Buying a refrigerator to hibernate her is not an attractive option for us. I don't think our closet gets that cold here in Southern California.
Thanks in advance for any advice. It's stressing us out.
Here is a picture of the burrow. There is now a thin plexiglass door on at the opening to prevent any uninvited critters while she is hibernating. We were in the midst of redoing our backyard. We are now redoing it with desert plants and wildflowers (planting this month) per our consultation at the Thomas Payne foundation.
I am in Orange County, California. We have a found a desert tortoise walking along the sidewalk back in July. The kids decided they wanted to keep it. After reading up on DTs, we went to a Tortoise Club meeting and received a permit for her. The members guessed that our DT is roughly 7 years old. We took to her to Dr. Greek in Yorba Linda and had her checked out. She was given a clean bill of health.
Long story short, Nobu started to get sluggish and eat less near the end of September. She has the run of our backyard. She has several hides throughout the yard under tall grass. She started coming out less. We would sometimes not see her for several days.
October 9th comes along and we had to evacuate due to the Canyon Fire 2. She actually came out that day around 10am (which is early for her). We boarded her at Dr. Greek's while we were evacuated. We picked her up 2 days later when we were allowed back home We brought her to the backyard. She refused any water and took one bite of her food. She then proceeded to go into her outdoor burrow structure I had built based on the design and recommendation of the president of the Valley Chapter of the CTTC . He told us it is a suitable outside burrow to hibernate her. She's been in there ever since. We were not expecting her to hibernate so soon! It wasn't even that cold yet when she started to slow down.
So we didn't get a chance weigh her as suggested here. We got worried during the heat wave October 22-27 when her burrow temp reached mid 80's since outside was in the 100's. We check on her periodically. Sometimes her head is out and sometimes it's not. Her burrow temp now averages 63-67 with humidity level in the mid 50's now that outside temp range from low 70's to upper 40s. The substrate in her den is a mix of orchid bark, dirt and straw. She has burrowed to the floor of the den with the substrate all around her (she is surrounded by 6-7 inches of substrate.
So we are unsure what to do. The temp is too high? for her to maintain a low enough metabolism according to the articles I've read here and elsewhere. Should we take her out and try to offer her water? Should I spray some water into the substrate to increase the humiditiy? Buying a refrigerator to hibernate her is not an attractive option for us. I don't think our closet gets that cold here in Southern California.
Thanks in advance for any advice. It's stressing us out.
Here is a picture of the burrow. There is now a thin plexiglass door on at the opening to prevent any uninvited critters while she is hibernating. We were in the midst of redoing our backyard. We are now redoing it with desert plants and wildflowers (planting this month) per our consultation at the Thomas Payne foundation.