The Tortoise Table

Hi Nina/Everybody,

We've noticed that Penny doesn't seem to have had a poo for a couple of weeks now, she has had a wee regularly. We are also struggling to keep her under her lamp for any longer than about 3 hours max before she wants to go back in her hide.

She last ate on Friday, and as planned we have now started the wind down period, with a view to putting her into hibernation on 9/10 December. She ate some weeds that we got from the garden and a bit of red pepper which she loves. She gets bathed daily, or on the odd occasion if we are at work we may have to skip a day but that's few and far between. Over the weekend we increased her bath time to about 20 minutes, she was happy to sit in the bowl and we changed the water so she was always sat in warm water. She seems absolutely fine otherwise and her normal self. Yesterday after her bath she was really quite active and wanting to be out of her table and have a wander around. Her tail was swishing about and I thought she might do something, but nothing at all.

Our house is warm, fluctuates between 18 and 20 c during the day and it never falls below 15 during the night. The temperature under her lamp is currently around 30c. I can't remember the wattage of the bulb we have but it was a new one which we got in August this year. She also has her UV strip lamp.

Do we need to be concerned or is there anything you can advise or suggest?

Thank You
Emma

Hi Emma,

Good to hear from you! You can sometimes encourage a poo by soaking her, which you're doing anyway, and it sounds like you're doing a great job (15 - 20 minutes in nice warm water will often produce a poo, but I wouldn't worry too much if it doesn't happen, as at the end of her fasting period she won't have any food in her stomach (which is the important thing), even if there is some in her gut. Tortoises can go into hibernation if food is still in their gut, and sometimes a tortoise will even have a poo in hibernaiton.

Your temperataures are absolutely fine and I can't think of anything else to tell you as you're doing great. Are you gradually reducing the hours of light and heat each day? Are you able to have her in a really cold room for the last three or four days (I put mine in the spare room and close the door and open the windows during those final days), as that will encourage her to sleep more deeply and maybe not move around so much in the fridge once she gets there. Having said that, mine seem to be well asleep in those last days of winding down, but as soon as they get in the fridge they move around and scratch in the corner of their boxes for a week or two, which drives me crazy (that's Horsfields for you!). I make the last bath before going into the fridge cooler -- so just tepid rather than warm.

I know this is all stressful (and you're not alone as I always feel stressed at this time of year too, but you're doing fine (and by the sounds of it, so is Penny).

Nina

Hi Nina,

That's a big relief to hear everything is sounding normal, thank you!

We have printed out a copy of your wind down table & are reducing lights over the wind down period. We have a utility room next to our garage which we will put her in for the last few days, it does get cold (but never freezing) so hopefully that will be ok before the transfer to the fridge.

I Will keep you updated.

Thanks as always
Emma

Sounds perfect -- happy hibernation!
Nina
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