Hi
I wondered if you could give your opinion on where we went wrong.
We inherited a female Herman's tortoise (Shelby) 17 months ago and unfortunately we've just lost her during her second hibernation.
She was approx 10 years old and hadn't grown in length since the wind down to her first hibernation but was a little heavier (although still towards the bottom end of the Jackson ration)
We have successfully hibernated our other Herman's tortoise (George) for 7 years and so I felt comfortable doing so, but after this I feel so guilty and full of doubt. The tortoises got on really well and in the summer would often find each other and sit together in the garden. George had always been aggressive towards other tortoises (biting their legs) but never showed any of this towards Shelby. Maybe it was because Shelby was bigger (or female or both).
As I mentioned Shelby was inherited from from a family member who had passed away and as she hadn't been hibernated in the first 8 years she was really big and her shell was really big and flat, but with pyramiding. George did try and mate with her on a few occasions but because of her large overgrown flat shell it didn't look like it would ever be possible to succeed.
Now that she hasn't woken up I'm thinking of all the possibilities of what could have gone wrong, and looking at her weight there is something I should have paid more attention too.
At the start of her wind down on 9th November 2012 she was 704g and two weeks later she was 684g I don't remember seeing any more poo from either of them after the first 2 weeks of winding down, and I bathed them regularly to try to get them to flush out any more waste. Her weight at the end of the wind down on 9th December was 702g. At the time I was surprised but thought the initial weight loss would have been the losing waste and maybe she had been drinking and put a bit back on, on that I'd misweighed her previously, but with hindsight I realise this was unlikely and I should have paid more attention to it!.
Could you think of any other reasons that could have contributed weight gain during this wind down, she could have been carrying eggs? as I mentioned I feel this would have been highly unlikely and she would have been ok to carry them through hibernation and lay them upon waking?, or eating waste or her bedding? (kitchen roll covered by wood chippings?) can you think of any other reasons? a tumour?
Her full weight recordings were as follows:
9th November start of wind down - 704g
27th November - 684g
9th December upon hibernating (fridge method) - 702g
20th December - 694g
8th January - 690g
20th January - 684g
10 February - upon waking and finding her dead 639g as fluids had leaked out - 9 weeks in total
I checked them both far more regularly than I weighed them and observed they had moved about but weren't showing any real signs of stirring and were alive and well with no signs of urination and the temperature was a steady 4c throughout, although as I was planning top wake them both up this weekend just gone it was 2 weeks since I last looked at them and so it was within this time that she died. Any help or advice would be really appreciated
Thank You
I wondered if you could give your opinion on where we went wrong.
We inherited a female Herman's tortoise (Shelby) 17 months ago and unfortunately we've just lost her during her second hibernation.
She was approx 10 years old and hadn't grown in length since the wind down to her first hibernation but was a little heavier (although still towards the bottom end of the Jackson ration)
We have successfully hibernated our other Herman's tortoise (George) for 7 years and so I felt comfortable doing so, but after this I feel so guilty and full of doubt. The tortoises got on really well and in the summer would often find each other and sit together in the garden. George had always been aggressive towards other tortoises (biting their legs) but never showed any of this towards Shelby. Maybe it was because Shelby was bigger (or female or both).
As I mentioned Shelby was inherited from from a family member who had passed away and as she hadn't been hibernated in the first 8 years she was really big and her shell was really big and flat, but with pyramiding. George did try and mate with her on a few occasions but because of her large overgrown flat shell it didn't look like it would ever be possible to succeed.
Now that she hasn't woken up I'm thinking of all the possibilities of what could have gone wrong, and looking at her weight there is something I should have paid more attention too.
At the start of her wind down on 9th November 2012 she was 704g and two weeks later she was 684g I don't remember seeing any more poo from either of them after the first 2 weeks of winding down, and I bathed them regularly to try to get them to flush out any more waste. Her weight at the end of the wind down on 9th December was 702g. At the time I was surprised but thought the initial weight loss would have been the losing waste and maybe she had been drinking and put a bit back on, on that I'd misweighed her previously, but with hindsight I realise this was unlikely and I should have paid more attention to it!.
Could you think of any other reasons that could have contributed weight gain during this wind down, she could have been carrying eggs? as I mentioned I feel this would have been highly unlikely and she would have been ok to carry them through hibernation and lay them upon waking?, or eating waste or her bedding? (kitchen roll covered by wood chippings?) can you think of any other reasons? a tumour?
Her full weight recordings were as follows:
9th November start of wind down - 704g
27th November - 684g
9th December upon hibernating (fridge method) - 702g
20th December - 694g
8th January - 690g
20th January - 684g
10 February - upon waking and finding her dead 639g as fluids had leaked out - 9 weeks in total
I checked them both far more regularly than I weighed them and observed they had moved about but weren't showing any real signs of stirring and were alive and well with no signs of urination and the temperature was a steady 4c throughout, although as I was planning top wake them both up this weekend just gone it was 2 weeks since I last looked at them and so it was within this time that she died. Any help or advice would be really appreciated
Thank You