Hibernation

Its recommended to keep hatchlings up to three years old or up to {100mm} plastron length awake during winter in a indoor heated enclosure.

Older tortoises can be hibernated safely, providing they are of good weight and are generally healthy and have shown no signs of respiratory problems. Remember that our summer months are much shorter and winters are much longer than southern Europe where they naturally live. To help extend the summer and reduce the time spent in hibernation its always best to use an indoor heated enclosure, from spring when they start to wake and in autumn, to prevent them from hibernating to early. Kept in a heated enclosure tortoises can be kept in a stable environment which will stimulate there appetite and prevent hibernation.

In the autumn, as early as the first week in September, night temperatures start to become cold and many tortoises stop eating, this is far to early for tortoises to start their hibernation. Again by using a heated indoor enclosure you can extend there summer to the end of October by maintaining a constant temperature and hours of day light. At the end of October you can start to reduce the hours of u.v light, plus day and night temperatures. Throughout this stage it’s important to carry on offering food. Reduce the day light from 14 hours per day to 12 hour in the first week, then down to 10 hours the following week and then down to 8 hours the week after that. So after three weeks the day light would have reduced from 14 hours down to 8.

Day and night temperatures should also be reduced over the same period of time from low 80’s down to low 60’s until the tortoise shows no signs of feeding due to its body temperature being to cool. During the period of cooling and reduced hours of light it’s important to bath your tortoises at least twice a week in warm water to help it pass as much as possible to empty its stomach before hibernation.

Continue reducing the temperature and light until they stop feeding. Start counting the days from when they last fed, after two weeks of not feeding at this stage the tortoise should have emptied its stomach contents and will be ready for hibernation. At this stage many tortoises will still show signs of activity and seem restless, this is normal.

It has been found in the past, when hibernating tortoises the old fashion way in a box with straw, hay or news paper, they frequently wake during the winter months and tend to be in poor condition. This is due to our winters being long and generally mild which can fluctuate daily and, by keeping your tortoise in straw, hay or paper the air circulating around your tortoise will fluctuate it's body temperature. This will take it in and out of sleep and will unnecessarily burn off calories and lose body weight, it will also cause dehydration which causes kidney failure. Remember that dehydration kills tortoises in hibernation not starvation as many people think.