Urgent help please (found hibernating tortoises)

[mercimek]

Hello I am new to this forum and also new to Tortoises. I live in SW Turkey and just accidentally woke up 2 hibernating wild tortoises, which were in a barn I Am converting. I made them a fenced in area with the same earth coming out of the barn. One covered herself inside the dirt and seems to be back in hibernation, the other one is awake and tries to get out the fence. I am really worried about temperatures though. In the day time we have sun and up to 18 Celsius but at night it can go down to 10 sometimes 6 Celsius. I have no idea what to do with the tortoise but defenetly don't want her to die. She is around 20 cm long, so not that young I guess and active, walking around her fenced place, trying to get out....She seems to look for the sun as well. The first night in there she dug herself in but came out again this morning ( as there was a lot of building work going on a few meters away. I urgently need advise what to do. Will she survive or do I need to take her in to the house at night? I have no central heating , just wooden stove and can not keep temperature constant at night. Thanks in advance for your help

 

[mercimek]

I did read that it is better to leave wild tortoises alone and I am also not sure how to sustain the care for the tortoise over 3 months, until it gets warm enough again..in march we still have cold weather at night here.......I hope someone can give me an advise and help to do the right thing, so that this beautiful creature enjoy a long life <3

 

[Maro2Bear]

Greetings, it probably is best to just leave them be like you have done. Maybe you can provide some extra hay or straw in the area where they are so they can burrow back down. Hopefully they will dig back & brumate. Hopefully they won’t be harmed during the barn reconstrction.

Good luck

 

[mercimek]

Thank you so much for your quick response. They will be safe from the barn constructions as they have their fenced area a few meters away from it. She looks healthy as much as I can tell. Hopefully she will go back in to hibernations, but somehow she looks so active and also it is getting warm in the day time ( up to 18 celsius ). She just dug herself in again, she seems to do that when the sun goes down. Will they survive 0-7 Celsius of temperature by just covering themselves over night and come out again in the day time?

 

[Yvonne G]

It is my opinion that grown wild tortoises should be left wild, and not captive, so here's my advice. Get a cardboard box and lay a bunch of newspaper on the floor of it. Place the tortoise on the newspaper them fill up the box with shredded paper and put a lid on it. Place the box in a cool, quiet spot, someplace where the temperature will stay between 40 and 50F degrees. Leave the tortoise alone until spring, when the night time temperatures have warmed up to be consistently in the 50'sF, then place it in a shallow tub of water for about 15 minutes then turn the tortoise loose in the same general area as where you found it.

If it's possible that these tortoises were NOT wild, but were left on the property by the previous barn owner, I would NOT release them, but rather, learn how to care for this species of tortoise and either adopt them out or set them up properly and take good care of them.

 

[mercimek]

It is my opinion that grown wild tortoises should be left wild, and not captive, so here's my advice. Get a cardboard box and lay a bunch of newspaper on the floor of it. Place the tortoise on the newspaper them fill up the box with shredded paper and put a lid on it. Place the box in a cool, quiet spot, someplace where the temperature will stay between 40 and 50F degrees. Leave the tortoise alone until spring, when the night time temperatures have warmed up to be consistently in the 50'sF, then place it in a shallow tub of water for about 15 minutes then turn the tortoise loose in the same general area as where you found it.

If it's possible that these tortoises were NOT wild, but were left on the property by the previous barn owner, I would NOT release them, but rather, learn how to care for this species of tortoise and either adopt them out or set them up properly and take good care of them.

 

[mercimek]

Thank you so much for your reply. They are definitely wild tortoises as I know the previous owner of this place and she didnt keep tortoise pets. We have so many many wild tortoises in the area, you see one a day for sure. Tortoises were wandering in my garden all summer long. The barn they had hibernate in was open and had 50 years of animal dung in it, so easy for tortoises to dig in and hibernate, plus a nice roof over their head....as I am converting the barn to a guest room I had to dig out the mud / dung in order to concrete. Thats when I found them. I moved them in to that dog kennel because all the dung I threw in there thinking they maybe happy in there and go back to sleep. I build them a little shed as well. One is fine and submerged in the dung in the new kennel, the other one ran away and went back in to the barn. I left her there for a week but she was just hiding in a corner, she didn`t dug herself up. The only reason I fenced up the kennels was to avoid her from running back to the barn again, as builders and concreting was already ordered. She dug herself in this evening, not sure if she will come out again in the morning, as temperatures go up to 65 F in the day time. But at night temperatures drop to 50, sometimes 62,5. I have no environment here to keep them in a box on a steady 50, not even inside my house as I am heating with a wooden stove in only one room. Sometimes stove goes out at night and then it is cold in the morning......

 

[mercimek]

There is also a chance that weather is getting cooler over the next months up to march...normally you see baby tortoises coming out left right and center end of april, beginning of may here...I was hoping that she is gonna go back in to hibernation by herself when the weather is a bit cooler again. I put a very shallow bowl of water in the dog kennels but no food, there is no greens in there as you can see on picture in my first post.

 

[mercimek]

Greetings, it probably is best to just leave them be like you have done. Maybe you can provide some extra hay or straw in the area where they are so they can burrow back down. Hopefully they will dig back & brumate. Hopefully they won’t be harmed during the barn reconstrction.

Good luck

So far all good, they are bot burrowed inside the dung...that was their choice and I sincerely hope that they won't come out till spring. It is a safe place for them. They completely covered themselves, one I know where, so I made her a roof and the other one I haven't spottet yet, but I am sure she dug herself in otherwise I would see her. It is raining all day and chilly, so hopefully they understand to hibernate a bit longer. I believe its best to let them be now and not interfere. Once the weather is warm and they are awake I will open the gate and let them back in to the wild. Maybe bath them before I let them go as a little kick start

 

[Tortisedonk7]

Thank you so much for your reply. They are definitely wild tortoises as I know the previous owner of this place and she didnt keep tortoise pets. We have so many many wild tortoises in the area, you see one a day for sure. Tortoises were wandering in my garden all summer long. The barn they had hibernate in was open and had 50 years of animal dung in it, so easy for tortoises to dig in and hibernate, plus a nice roof over their head....as I am converting the barn to a guest room I had to dig out the mud / dung in order to concrete. Thats when I found them. I moved them in to that dog kennel because all the dung I threw in there thinking they maybe happy in there and go back to sleep. I build them a little shed as well. One is fine and submerged in the dung in the new kennel, the other one ran away and went back in to the barn. I left her there for a week but she was just hiding in a corner, she didn`t dug herself up. The only reason I fenced up the kennels was to avoid her from running back to the barn again, as builders and concreting was already ordered. She dug herself in this evening, not sure if she will come out again in the morning, as temperatures go up to 65 F in the day time. But at night temperatures drop to 50, sometimes 62,5. I have no environment here to keep them in a box on a steady 50, not even inside my house as I am heating with a wooden stove in only one room. Sometimes stove goes out at night and then it is cold in the morning......

Thats amazing! I really want to see a wild tortoise especially a sulcata in wild Africa.
What species of wild tortoise lives in area?
Good luck!

 

[mercimek]

Thats amazing! I really want to see a wild tortoise especially a sulcata in wild Africa.
What species of wild tortoise lives in area?
Good luck!

Oh we have all sorts here, sea turtles like loggerheads ( Carett Caretta ) Nil turtles, Caspian turtles. As for tortoises we have spur-thighed tortoise (Testudo graeca ibera) and Greek tortoises. In May you see so many baby tortoises if you go up the village roads. I always stop and help them over the road so they don't get driven over. In summer in my garden I see tortoises almost daily. When my two tortoises awake in spring, I might mark them so I will be able to tell when I see them, but as far as I understand the like to stay in their territory. So for now I am just praying that the stay put, nicely dug in and then come out happily in spring......I attached a pic of one of the tortoises in my garden

 

[Tortisedonk7]

Wow so cool!
manouria emys are native to where I live. But finding one of those in the jungle is well.... harder than seeing a wild Borneo elephant, you have to get really lucky.
Good luck with your wild friends. Maybe you can post some video here of all the babies crossing the road in spring?

 

[mercimek]

Wow so cool!
manouria emys are native to where I live. But finding one of those in the jungle is well.... harder than seeing a wild Borneo elephant, you have to get really lucky.
Good luck with your wild friends. Maybe you can post some video here of all the babies crossing the road in spring?

Yes I will try to remember that, never been that much involved with tortoises other then loving them, but as they are wild here and so present, I never felt the need to get more involved....Now I am with my two adapted tortoises ))) All the best to you