Brittmarie24
New Member
So my first hibernation season has been a disaster. My Russian tortoise is an adult, we’re unsure of age since she was found wondering the streets. The vet said she was probably a young adult, but she was malnourished. Anyways fast forward and she’s a happy health tort with a large 15x15 ft outdoor enclosure. She eats large variety of greens/veggies/ fruits from rec vet list every other day and has been great.
I was worried because she wasn’t burrowing for hibernation and it was starting to get cold at night here in Ga. She had stopped eating and was tucked partially underneath in her normal half burrows she does. I contacted my vet and he said put cypress mulch around her burrow, help with insulation and to cover her up, etc. all went great. Well this past week it dropped to 29 degrees F at night, highs around 40-50 during the day with 98% humidity and off and on hail and lots of cold rain. I freaked out a little, worried about drainage and dug her up last night since her inclosure is near a stream in our backyard and the stream flooded with the massive amount of rain in last week. Her burrow has some water in it but it wasn’t flooded yet.
I put her inside my grave which is insulated so it’s still around 60 degrees or so, I don’t know if that was wrong to do? I didn’t know where else to put her. She’s in an old tank with her cypress mulch and sand under a log decoration that makes it like she’s burrowed.
My question is should I just let her come out of hibernation and keep her inside all winter? She was only down for like 2 weeks, should I warm her all the way and soak her? Or should I put her back out? It’s gona be in the 70s this week and then the next week it’s back down to the 50s so weather really isn’t my friend right now? Not sure what I should do??
I was worried because she wasn’t burrowing for hibernation and it was starting to get cold at night here in Ga. She had stopped eating and was tucked partially underneath in her normal half burrows she does. I contacted my vet and he said put cypress mulch around her burrow, help with insulation and to cover her up, etc. all went great. Well this past week it dropped to 29 degrees F at night, highs around 40-50 during the day with 98% humidity and off and on hail and lots of cold rain. I freaked out a little, worried about drainage and dug her up last night since her inclosure is near a stream in our backyard and the stream flooded with the massive amount of rain in last week. Her burrow has some water in it but it wasn’t flooded yet.
I put her inside my grave which is insulated so it’s still around 60 degrees or so, I don’t know if that was wrong to do? I didn’t know where else to put her. She’s in an old tank with her cypress mulch and sand under a log decoration that makes it like she’s burrowed.
My question is should I just let her come out of hibernation and keep her inside all winter? She was only down for like 2 weeks, should I warm her all the way and soak her? Or should I put her back out? It’s gona be in the 70s this week and then the next week it’s back down to the 50s so weather really isn’t my friend right now? Not sure what I should do??
