My Experience With Merlina This Last Winter

Viola B

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Jul 13, 2018
Messages
234
Location (City and/or State)
Idaho Falls, Idaho
I am by far not a story teller, but I would like to share my experience with my Russian this last winter.

Merlina will ne 3 yrs. old this June. She weighs 570g and is about 5 and a half inches. Merlina is a very friendly Russian and I enjoy her a great deal.

I live in Idaho Falls, Id. where the winters are cold and long. The summers are short with long days.

This summer I had Merlina outdoors in her enclosure for some nice sunshine and lots of weeds to eat. Each night I would bring her indoors, as the nights cool down a lot.

Towards the end of Sept. the days were starting to get shorter and cooler. Merlina's time outside was getting shorter also.

Merlina started to eat less and sleep more. I extended the lights being on from 12 hours to 14 hours in her indoor enclosure. I thought that would help in getting her up and going. She had a different idea!

Merlina has never been one to bury herself very well. She mostly goes into her hide, digs a little depression and off to sleep. Well, that changed! She started doing a great job of burying herself deep in her indoor enclosure.

Each day I was waking her up for her daily soak and offering food. She was still eating little and sleeping more. She was holding her weight at this point, which was 556g.

In Oct she quit eating for 10 days. I still got her up for her daily soaks and offered food. Sleep was her thing! I feel the same way in winter----Sleep! After the 10 days she started to eat a little. This became our routine, my getting her for a soak, feeding her, eating a little, going for a short walk around her enclosure, then off the bed. She always did a pee and poop during her soak. This routine continued until the Dec when Merlina would get herself up every few days, not many, but a few. Some days she was up a little longer.

Along comes Feb and what to my surprise,------she is up at 6:30 am for the whole day!! Well she says, I am done with that sleeping business------Where's my food?? She's up and active once again.

I have read about Russian's hibernating in a fridge for winter. The thought of doing that scares the socks off of me. I am fine with sharing winters with Merlina as we did this last winter. It was a nice adventure. She is a sweet girl, friendly, and curious about everything.

I would very much like to hear others adventures with their Russians.
 

RosemaryDW

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5 Year Member
Joined
Feb 17, 2016
Messages
4,144
Location (City and/or State)
Newport Coast, CA
If she can see the days are getting shorter, even through a window, she is likely to slow down if not go down entirely. When the days grow longer they turn right back on. We always say our tortoise is going to do what she wants, what we think doesn’t matter. :)

We found our tortoise on the street late in an October. She must have been looking for a good place to hibernate because she disappeared in our yard before we could find any owners. I’ve had a tortoise before and kind of thought she’d be okay but was still surprised to see her pop up in February, muddy and wet.

She’s an outdoor tortoise and as wild caught, wired to hibernate; when she is ready she is ready! As surprised tortoise owners we did not have much of a space for an indoor enclosure and I wasn’t particularly interested in keeping her up. We live in a place that isn’t really cold or dry enough for a Russian to safely hibernate outside so keep her in a fridge (her own, not ours!) each year. There are very good instructions for fridge hibernating Russians but I was very anxious that year—and the year after. Things worked just as they should; her weight remained stable and she came out roaring to eat. I would have been equally anxious had she snuck down outdoors; at least this way I could keep an eye on her.

We know now when she’s getting ready each year, slowing down and eating less; I can peg the day she will dig under now so I don’t have to worry about figuring when it’s time. I was very much like you the first year, offering food she clearly didn’t want. Now I know she will drop a bit of weight as she slows down so I don’t push it. I do make sure she’s had a chance to drink before hibernation although she’s only done so once. Two years ago we bought her a beverage chiller which has more accurate temperature management than her little dorm fridge (she’d outgrown it) and she goes down hard; I occasionally weigh her and that’s it.

I do miss seeing her; some years she goes down earlier than usual and we can’t bring her out until it’s warm. She actually just came out of the fridge the night before last. We gave her a soak in the morning and I found her tromping around at noon!

I can’t say she’s particularly friendly; it didn’t seem like she’d had much handling when we got her and she’s got enough space outdoors to stay a little bit “wild” so I mostly let her be these days. She’s not at all afraid of us, though, so we get to see her doing her thing all the time. In a couple of days her thing is going to be eating everything she can find so I took my first walk for nearby weeds. She’s wild enough now that she prefers to eat what she finds in the yard but as she’s quite destructive I try to offer enough to give the plants a break. I don’t have much success, as always she does what she wants. She’ll surprise with some new behavior soon I’m sure; every year is an adventure. :)
 
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