What the most weight your tortoise should loose before hibernation

kyle123

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Hi I have a 8 year old Marginated tortoise and this is his first year where i will hibernate him. I've been weighing him all year and he's been around 1500g the past couple months. He is currently winding down for hibernation so hasn't eaten for 2 weeks. His weight has stayed constant all the way through apart from two days ago he did a huge poo. I know it is good for him to poo to empty his gut but he now weighs 965g. He's lost about 80ish grams. Is it still safe ok to hibernate him as the weight loss is directly related to his poos. I plan to put him in the fridge in just over a week.
 

JoesMum

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If he started at 1500g and is now 965g then he has lost one third of his bodyweight in the run up to hibernation and that worries me. You cannot attribute a weight loss of that magnitude to poop alone.

I wouldn't expect anything like that weight loss and I am not sure I would recommend hibernation at all.
 

JoesMum

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Or is a typo involved. Was he 1050g before the wind down? That would make the maths more sensible and hibernation should be fine. I would expect little or no weight loss during hibernation itself. If he loses 10% of bodyweight during hibernation (90g) then he must be woken.
 
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