I am new to this

[Joblack]

Hi all - I am new on this site, so bare with me please.
My name is Jo. I live in Cape Town South Africa. I have one Angulate tortoise - Molly weighing 950 g and two Leopard Torts. Sully the male, weights 6.1 kg and female Waz weighs 4.7kg. I have had them since September of 2011. This will be my first winter with them. I have read plenty of sites and see that over in the UK, people hibernate their torts during the cold winter months. Our winters here, only reach around 15deg at night and about 18deg during the day. My torts live in quite a big grass area and they have a nice dry enclosed "sleeping place" to which they "retire" at night. Is it necessary for me to hibernate mine during the coming winter months, which lasts about 5 months..
Any info you can give me will be highly appreciated.

 

[Jacqui]

Hi Joe! Welcome to TFO. Only some species will hibernate and even with those, it is up to the keeper if they wish to hibernate them. Leopards are not hibernated and if memory serves me correctly, neither would your other one.

 

[dmarcus]

Hello Jo and welcome to the forum...

 

[Joblack]

Hi Joe! Welcome to TFO. Only some species will hibernate and even with those, it is up to the keeper if they wish to hibernate them. Leopards are not hibernated and if memory serves me correctly, neither would your other one.

Thanks so much Jacqui
So as long as I make sure that their sleeping area is well sheltered from the cold and rain, and always dry inside with lots of straw, I could leave them there and just keep an eye on them every few days. I am assuming that they are'nt going to be moving around or eating much during the cold and rainy months.
Thanks again, Jo

 

[Joblack]

Hello Jo and welcome to the forum...

Thanks so much, I look forward to interacting on this site

 

[Jacqui]

Your probably going to need to provide them with some heating and maybe lighting as well. While they may slow down a bit, if they are not really hibernating, any tortoise still will be burning calories and thus needs to keep eating. If they are eating, they will need heat to be able to process the food and of course food itself.

 

[ALDABRAMAN]

Welcome!

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Jo:

Welcome to the Tortoise Forum!!

I'm assuming that the tortoises you have actually come from the area of SA where you live? In my opinion, you can just provide them with a dry shelter and let them be natural.

 

[Neal]

I would try to make contact with some other leopard tortoise owners in your area. Here is a forum that could get you in contact with some of them:

http://www.sareptiles.co.za/forum/

It may be a good idea to hibernate the leopards, but get opinions from those who actually live in your area and who hibernate their leopards.

We would like to see some pictures of them too!

 

[coreyc]

Welcome to the TFO we love to see some pic's

 

[slowpoke]

Welcome ... Yes we LOVE pic's here

 

[laramie]

Hel:lo and welcome to TFO

 

[nicoleandrocky]

welcome

 

[TORTOISEMAN1]

Welcome to the Tortoise Forum!!

 

[pam]

Welcome

 

[tortoiselady]

Our winters here, only reach around 15deg at night and about 18deg during the day.

[/quote]

Hi,
For people like me in the USA your 15 deg. C = 59 deg. F and 18 deg. C = 64.4 deg. F. It is our late winter right now and we often have similar temps as yours. My leopard is doing fine in those temps here in Southern California. He is not nearly as active as in the summer months so I would guess your leopards would just slow down some. I would keep them dry from the rains too. I think you are going to be fine with what you have described.

Welcome!

 

[Joblack]

Hi Jo:

Welcome to the Tortoise Forum!!

I'm assuming that the tortoises you have actually come from the area of SA where you live? In my opinion, you can just provide them with a dry shelter and let them be natural.

Thanks for your advise
regards, jo

 

[Joblack]

I would try to make contact with some other leopard tortoise owners in your area. Here is a forum that could get you in contact with some of them:

http://www.sareptiles.co.za/forum/

It may be a good idea to hibernate the leopards, but get opinions from those who actually live in your area and who hibernate their leopards.

We would like to see some pictures of them too!

Thanks Neal, I will definitely contact sareptiles. I will take some pics this week end and post

rgs, jo

 

[Jacob]

Welcome to the forum..

 

[Joblack]

hi all
thanks so much for all the welcome's