Just not hibernating!!

[Les E]

Hi,

I have a Horsefield tortoise, male and about a year and half old. We got him in July so this is our first winter with him.

He lives indoors and we put him into hibernation at the beginning of November. However over the past week he has been moving about, which is normal, but yesterday I found him out of his hibernation box and looking at me at the cupboard door where hes kept.

So with him actually getting himself out his box, is he hungry/thirsty and should I bring him out the hibernation cycle? He seems to be more active than I would like for this time of year and wondering what the best course of action would be?

 

[JoesMum]

Hello and welcome

When you say you hibernated your tortoise - how, where and what temperature is it?

For a tortoise to hibernate properly temperatures need to be consistently between 0 and 10C (32-50F) ideally a steady 5C/41F.

In your home that is impossible to achieve without a fridge.

Did you wind your tortoise down before hibernation - it takes a good fortnight of reduced/no heat, no food and daily soaks to slow your tort down, empty its digestive tract and get it ready to go down.

They are rarely completely still in hibernation, some movement still happens, but if your tort is still active it suggests the temperatures are wrong.

We don't recommend hibernating a tortoise in the first year of ownership and very small tortoises should only be hibernated for a very short period as the risk of them losing too much weight is high.

A tortoise should lose no more than 10% of its bodyweight in hibernation - mine usually loses much less than that.