Restless hibernating tortoise

[Tino the Tortoise]

Hi all, I'm new to the site and am looking for some advice on hibernation. My tortoise is a ten year old female horsefield tortoise weighing around 900g.

I have let tino hibernate (brumate?) in the last few weeks, but have noticed she seems to still be moving around and relatively responsive. I have put her in a box with soil and bark chippings and she has burrowed in. I gradually moved her to colder places and she is now in a fridge (5-10 degrees) where she has been for a couple of weeks. I took the box out yesterday to check on her and as I opened the lid she hissed and jerked her head away as she does whilst awake normally. As this is the first year she has been with me for winter (after moving from my parents) I'm a bit inexperienced and am unsure how responsive she should be during hibernation. Is her reaction normal or is this a sign I need to change something? Is it possible the noise in the kitchen or opening and closing the fridge might be disturbing her?

Any help or ideas would be great!
Thanks all
Chris

 

[Tortgrl43]

Why did you decide to hibernate her? I've never done that but am curious about the process

 

[Tom]

Hi all, I'm new to the site and am looking for some advice on hibernation. My tortoise is a ten year old female horsefield tortoise weighing around 900g.

I have let tino hibernate (brumate?) in the last few weeks, but have noticed she seems to still be moving around and relatively responsive. I have put her in a box with soil and bark chippings and she has burrowed in. I gradually moved her to colder places and she is now in a fridge (5-10 degrees) where she has been for a couple of weeks. I took the box out yesterday to check on her and as I opened the lid she hissed and jerked her head away as she does whilst awake normally. As this is the first year she has been with me for winter (after moving from my parents) I'm a bit inexperienced and am unsure how responsive she should be during hibernation. Is her reaction normal or is this a sign I need to change something? Is it possible the noise in the kitchen or opening and closing the fridge might be disturbing her?

Any help or ideas would be great!
Thanks all
Chris

Temp needs to be around 4 C. They will remain active at 5-10C.

 

[Tino the Tortoise]

Why did you decide to hibernate her? I've never done that but am curious about the process

I've been told in the past (whether rightly or wrongly - I've seen the lengthy discussion on the pros and cons) that it was a more natural thing to allow tortoise to do this. I'm in the UK and trying to keep a tortoise awake all winter is a constant battle so I figured that it would be less stressful for her to hibernate than constantly be woken up and made to eat when she clearly doesn't want to! Now the tricky bit is doing it correctly!

 

[JoesMum]

I have successfully hibernated a Greek in the UK for 42 years.

You don't have to do it, but once a tortoise gets to the size where it's living outside 24/7 then it becomes a no brainer. The one year I had to keep Jo awake all winter was extremely stressful for both of us. He hated being inside. Ther wasn't enough room... and he had our entire dining room converted into an enclosure.

It is important the tortoise is wound down properly.
It is important that it's cool enough - a stable 4-5C... You need a dedicated fridge as the kitchen fridge is opened too frequently for the temperature to be stable.

I use a probe indoor-outdoor thermometer bought on eBay. I put the end of the wire for measuring outdoor temperature in the box with Joe and the monitor itself on top of the fridge. The door seal copes with the wire fine.

You can also fill the fridge with milk bottles filled with water. That stops the fridge warming up too much when warm air rushes in as you open the door.

 

[Tino the Tortoise]

Thanks for the replies! I think she was wound down correctly and hasn't eaten for quite some time now. I have a max/min thermometer which is useful for telling me the range of temperatures but I think the current fridge is slightly too variable as you suggest. Looks like I need a dedicated tortoise fridge!!

Once in a fridge at the right temperature, how responsive will she be? For example, last time I opened her box, she hissed at me and hid her head...when properly hibernated is this behaviour normal or will she be oblivious?

 

[JoesMum]

Handling a hibernating tortoise is normally like handling a brick. Not a lot going on.

Sometimes legs move a bit, but not much else.

The hiss is possibly just escaping from the lungs as the legs move rather than a full on “I’m awake” hiss.

 

[Tino the Tortoise]

Thought I'd come back with a bit of an update. I'm currently in the process of trying to move house so buying a new fridge isn't really an option at the moment. However, I have now rehoused Tino in a large polystyrene box filled with soil which is doing a fine job of keeping the temperature between 4 and 6. I've also checked and she hasn't lost weight since first being put in the fridge so I'm taking that as a good sign!

Thanks for your advice