"Winter Slow-Down"??

[danipaul71]

My first winter with Torts, and am wondering about the whole "winter slow down" thing... The weather in Nebraska has gotten cooler, and I feel like my Leopards have noticed. Or, I could be dilusional, but I'm hoping not.. My torts are eating, but can tell not as much. They are active, but not as much.
They still do everything as they did before, but at a slower pace or not as much.

Am I crazy? Thoughts? Experience??

My Yvonne/Will Tort is doing FANTASTIC, and has a bunch of shell growth. My other, is good- not much noticeable growth, but got a bigger enclosure, and I never thought to get a stronger Uvb, so he plastron has gotten rather soft. Hoping with both calcium on it's food (as I did before, but he eats everything around it) and a cuttlebone that it, at times, visits, and the stronger uvb bulb that he'll be on the mend.

 

[Levi the Leopard]

Is your leopard housed indoors or outdoors?

Housed indoors, the outside Nebraska temps are irrelevant. I personally never saw any winter slow downs with any of the leopards that were housed indoors.

Housed outdoors, ya there will be a slow down but I don't mean that how it sounds, it depends on things...
For example, my leopard lives outside here in southern Oregon and has a fully insulated, heated with an oil filled radiator plugged into a thermostat, tort house. So, although he's a toasty 80-90°F when inside that house, he technically slows down because he doesn't come out as often. To compensate, I feed him "breakfast in bed" quite often and add forced soaks back into his routine.

 

[Vladsfriend]

I only have 2 years experience caring for a 22-ish year old Russian tortoise in northern Ohio. He lives year round indoors and, although some temperature fluctuation certainly takes place, the house is always between 63-75°F. He slows down starting in late October, eats less and is less active until early March. Then he picks up again. He also has a slow down the hottest week of the year. I found it very odd. He is on climate controlled conditions, lights on a timer. But other posters on this site have had similar comments. They were all RTs and all in the Midwest. So it's not an exact equivalent. But it sure seems they sense things more than one might think.

 

[Levi the Leopard]

I only have 2 years experience caring for a 22-ish year old Russian tortoise in northern Ohio. He lives year round indoors and, although some temperature fluctuation certainly takes place, the house is always between 63-75°F. He slows down starting in late October, eats less and is less active until early March. Then he picks up again. He also has a slow down the hottest week of the year. I found it very odd. He is on climate controlled conditions, lights on a timer. But other posters on this site have had similar comments. They were all RTs and all in the Midwest. So it's not an exact equivalent. But it sure seems they sense things more than one might think.

Interesting, I too have read other posters talk about their Russians having indoor slow downs.

Anyone else? Any indoor leopards show behavior changes in the winter?

 

[Careym13]

This is only the second winter I've had my Leopards, and I haven't noticed any slow down yet. But, it has been strangely warm in my neck of the woods so far this year.

 

[Neal]

A lot will depend on if you're housing them indoors or outdoors.

My adults that stay outdoors 24/7, definitely have a slow down period due to the decreased in daylight hours. The young ones kept inside don't slow down much.

 

[Yvonne G]

Yes, I don't think your indoor babies should notice any difference. There must be something happening in the habitat. Maybe too much cool air from the room getting into the habitat?

 

[Sh3wulf]

My three year old male definitely slows down. He's indoor housed for the winter, as we live in Southern Ontario. His lights and a night ceramic heater are on timers, but it doesn't change anything. He sleeps all day and night starting about mid Oct and goes like that until around mid March.
I force soaks on him weekly, very very warm, and those generally wake him long enough to eat some. However it isn't even a moderate amount of what he eats during the summer months when he's outdoors in the sun and heat and eating what he finds/scavenges.
I noticed this summer that he ate a snake and several worms, of his own volition, so I am considering introducing the option of worm over the winter along with feeding his grass mix in egg shells which I did last year and he really enjoyed.
I am taking my tortoises lead on everything these days. He eats what he wants and I figure in the wild he would be doing exactly that, so why should I intervene. I won't lie though, the snake eating really grossed me out

 

[SarahChelonoidis]

My three year old male definitely slows down. He's indoor housed for the winter, as we live in Southern Ontario. His lights and a night ceramic heater are on timers, but it doesn't change anything. He sleeps all day and night starting about mid Oct and goes like that until around mid March.

I feel your winter pains in Southern Ontario, but I'm still surprised you have that extreme of a slow down. What are your indoor enclosure low temperatures like?

 

[Tom]

...so why should I intervene.

You should intervene because your back yard is not the wild, not the climate or environment they are equipped to deal with, doesn't share common flora or fauna with the area where your tortoise evolved, and because eventually, not intervening is likely to result in your tortoise's death.

There are many stories on this forum of tortoises eating things they shouldn't. I posted about one not long ago and Aldabraman posted about one his babies he sold dying from eating something it shouldn't have too.

 

[Tom]

My first winter with Torts, and am wondering about the whole "winter slow down" thing... The weather in Nebraska has gotten cooler, and I feel like my Leopards have noticed. Or, I could be dilusional, but I'm hoping not.. My torts are eating, but can tell not as much. They are active, but not as much.
They still do everything as they did before, but at a slower pace or not as much.

Am I crazy? Thoughts? Experience??

My Yvonne/Will Tort is doing FANTASTIC, and has a bunch of shell growth. My other, is good- not much noticeable growth, but got a bigger enclosure, and I never thought to get a stronger Uvb, so he plastron has gotten rather soft. Hoping with both calcium on it's food (as I did before, but he eats everything around it) and a cuttlebone that it, at times, visits, and the stronger uvb bulb that he'll be on the mend.

What are your four temps? Warm side, cool side, basking area and overnight low? What equipment are you using to maintain these temps? UV?

I don't see much of a slow down with my indoor housed tropical tortoises in winter either.

 

[Sh3wulf]

You should intervene because your back yard is not the wild, not the climate or environment they are equipped to deal with, doesn't share common flora or fauna with the area where your tortoise evolved, and because eventually, not intervening is likely to result in your tortoise's death.

There are many stories on this forum of tortoises eating things they shouldn't. I posted about one not long ago and Aldabraman posted about one his babies he sold dying from eating something it shouldn't have too.

Thanks for the thoughts on this Tom. Hadn't considered the fact that I was exposing Benny to an environment with foreign species.

For the record, his outdoor enclosure is planted with tortoisetable recommended edible plants, so when I say he chooses, I guess I should say I provided a selection of suitable and safe plants. The snake was a fluke cause I obviously wouldn't have put it in there, and it was happen chance that I was walking by the enclosure when I heard the munching on what was the last of said snake.

Interesting fact regarding the snake, he pooped the skin sans internal meats out, whole and intact, three days later.

With regards to my indoor - there is a whole thread on here somewhere where the experienced keepers (including you Tom) helped me out with my set up, and all my temps and bulbs are as recommended and I'm very diligent in my care of these, so yes, Benny's indoor enclosure is exactly how it is suppose to be, but he still slows every year.

Anyhow, I feel like I high jacked this poor thread, and I don't like that, so feel recommendations for this members question should probably follow.

Feel free to message in one of my threads if you wish to continue discussions.

 

[danipaul71]

What are your four temps? Warm side, cool side, basking area and overnight low? What equipment are you using to maintain these temps? UV?

I don't see much of a slow down with my indoor housed tropical tortoises in winter either.

I haven"t done anything different other than getting a stronger uvb. Temps run - basking 100-104 usually, warm 95 cool 80 overnight around 80 or so.
Feed a varied diet, soaked tonight in a bath with calcium d3 sprinkled in it, since i cant get them to eat food with it dusted on and can't get them to eat mazuri either. They did drink, so at least I know they got some of it tonight. Althought the temps in my house and enclosure are a bit cooler (usually between 5-10degrees) now that its cold, I didn't think it would make a very noticeable difference. All lights are set on a timer, for consistency, just bumped it up from 12.5 to 14 hours daytime with a shorter nighttime cycle.

 

[Tom]

What type is the stronger UV? What is the mounting height?

You said temps are 5-10 cooler now that its cold, so does this mean your night temp of 80 is now dropping to 70? If yes, that could be your problem.

 

[danipaul71]

Summertime temps would be warmer than what they get to now, but if it is the case, I am willing to get the temps up to summertime temps. I figured since I keep the house on the rather cool side, that the temps wouldn't be as high, but that they would still be within acceptable limits.
What would anyonr reccommend to get and keep temps up? CHE? MVB? Heating pad underneath?

 

[Tom]

Summertime temps would be warmer than what they get to now, but if it is the case, I am willing to get the temps up to summertime temps. I figured since I keep the house on the rather cool side, that the temps wouldn't be as high, but that they would still be within acceptable limits.
What would anyonr reccommend to get and keep temps up? CHE? MVB? Heating pad underneath?

What are the temps right now? It sounds like you are guessing what they should be according to the house temperature. Are you running a thermometer in there and seeing what the over night low is dropping to?

 

[danipaul71]

Right now: 91 on the warm end, 84 on the cool. I have 3 of those acu-rite thermometers in there. Low for the day in the warm side was 84- as i opened it for a bit to feed, clean the water bowl and soak.

 

[Tom]

Right now: 91 on the warm end, 84 on the cool. I have 3 of those acu-rite thermometers in there. Low for the day was 84- as i opened it for a bit to feed, clean the water bowl and soak.

What are you using for night heat, and how low is it dropping?

 

[danipaul71]

Infared night heat bulbs. (Non coil). Doesnt get below low 80s at night.

 

[Tom]

Infared night heat bulbs. (Non coil). Doesnt get below low 80s at night.

Tortoises have better color vision than we do. If you can see with those lights, so can they, and some times it messes with their head.

You could try switching to CHEs instead.


My question above was a typo... What type of UV bulb are you using for day time?