So Hot Outside

[colatoise]

Hey Everyone,
Little worried about the extreme heat here today and it will continue over the next few days. It is 108 outside right now. Just checked on my torts and one has burrowed in and the other is crawling out of his water dish. I just sprayed them both and changed their water. Humidity is around 55%. Tonight the temp is supposed to drop to about 80. Any tips?

 

[JoesMum]

Hey Everyone,
Little worried about the extreme heat here today and it will continue over the next few days. It is 108 outside right now. Just checked on my torts and one has burrowed in and the other is crawling out of his water dish. I just sprayed them both and changed their water. Humidity is around 55%. Tonight the temp is supposed to drop to about 80. Any tips?

What specie is your tort?

They cope well with heat gemerally as long as you can provide good shade for the heat of the day.

Activity patterns change so that they are most active at day break and after sunset. Leaving a supply of fresh food when you go to bed means am early riser can tuck in before you get up.

 

[Jacqui]

Any tips?

Drink lots of cold fluids and have a big bowl of ice cream. As for the tortoises, sounds like both you and they are already doing the important things. With them going into substrate/dirt is cooling along with time in the water dish. You are keeping them with fresh cool water and spraying their enclosure. You could put up something to block some of the sun, if that may be a problem. Otherwise, just leave them alone. As for feeding you also might want to think of adding something like romaine (or even the evil iceburg lettuce) as the greens of the week, just because it does have a high water content.

 

[colatoise]

What specie is your tort?

They cope well with heat gemerally as long as you can provide good shade for the heat of the day.

Activity patterns change so that they are most active at day break and after sunset. Leaving a supply of fresh food when you go to bed means am early riser can tuck in before you get up.

They are Greek. Thanks for the advice!

 

[Nixxy]

108 isn't all too bad for a tort. It's probably harder on you than them.

As said, add some lettuce to their weekly feed (It's high in water and good for them.), and keep an eye on them. The burrowing is normal, it's just like a dog panting. It's there way to cool down.

 

[colatoise]

Temp late afternoon was close to 120 in enclosure. Broke record for Columbia, SC today. Not supposed to drop below 100 before Wednesday. I brought them inside for the night. Temp in my sun room is 82. Have to get up at 730 to wait on cable guy and will soak before putting them back outside.

 

[Neal]

Make sure they have plenty of places to hide and spray down the enclosure during the hotter part of the day.

The greeks should be fine if you do that. Keep them well hydrated too of course.

 

[JoesMum]

It's not exactly cool in a Greek's natural environment. Leave outdoors at night. It is surprising how active they will be after dark when the weather is so hot.

Free access to a large soaking area and plenty of shade is required, but expect little activity in daylight hours. It's normal for them.

 

[Terry Allan Hall]

I made my a "cave" out of stone and it's quite a bit cooler beneath than the outside temps...yesterday, when the high was 105F, around 3pm, it was 84F beneath.

Your local hardware store will generally have large flagstones in the gardening department...get the largest light-colored one you can find (mine is about 30" X 17") and a couple more to support it about 10" tall and set it up in a corner of your enclosure.

Stone is a great insulator, and the light color reflects away heat, thus it stays cooler.

 

[yoda3106]

Yea, they will be fine, trust me, I know greeks well, I have 3 myself and I live in Cyprus lol today it's 37degrees, 98f and they are hiding, and theyve done the same when It was hotter!! They come out late evening to chill and relax in there water dish then go back in after a while!! I'm never up early enough to catch them having an early morning stroll lol plus, where greeks are naturally from, it's a lot hotter and they cope just fine!! It's there natural environment they know what to do

 

[ThatDamnSasquatch]

I had a similar fear for my CHRFs, as it has been consistently 95-100 this past week. However, I found that putting their food out at 7am (dawn) and giving them squash, zucchini, and soaked Mazuri left them plenty of water filled food options. That coupled with a solid soak of the enclosure and moving it under a bush for added shade made for suitable living. They both just adjusted to eating early and then spending the middle of the day buried deep in their hides where it is substantially cooler. Today we got a light rain storm and one was out and about enjoying the change in weather.