Can tortoise really tell the season has changed? I have an indoor enclosure for my red foot & I purchased her in February, I understand red foots don't hibernate or bromate but she was inactive & ate very little that whole month despite having UVA+UVB full spectrum lights on 10 hours a day didn't seem to fool her with these artificial temperatures. But it's March now from where I live is gradually warming up considerably & she is out of her lethargy...if yours had to dig herself out must have been kept in an outdoors enclosure & in cold weathers.
It's hard to know exactly when a tortoise eventually emerges. It's been so damp here that our little girl may have just wanted to bask in the warmth. She is still rather slow; but she is moving lot more today than she did yesterday. She nibbled on some Hibiscus too.
I was fortunate to supply my red foot with fresh Hibiscus leaves daily & with it's flowers every 3 days too, daily greens & fruits seems to be a must for her & she now poops regularly is a good sign a tortoise is digesting their foods & absorbing nutrients. Tortoises seems only very active when put in an open field or wide spaces & mine would race to shades & hide, in an enclosure she's always very slow & look for places to hide from the lights.
The weather sucked today it was cloudy, dark & windy & my tortoise didn't move, she appears to have sensed outside isn't pleasant & again wasn't interested in feeding even though a UVA+UVB & a incandescent light was shinning down on her but clearly the temperature isn't as high as it's balmy outside....can't fool her.
Yes. They can tell. You should be keeping the lights on for at least 12-13 hours a day. Sometimes increasing the heat a few degrees and add a little more light will turn them around when they get this way.
