Tortoises going 'mad' without food...

[RacingSnake]

Ok, so we're going to hibernate our 2 this year, and the wind-down starts today.
The usual routine, is that they get fed when I get up in the morning (usually between 5&6)... they're usually still asleep then, but it means the food there is when they wake up.

Today I haven't fed them, and on checking them, they're running (literally) around their house - pushing at the door to get out etc.

Is this normal? I'm assuming they're desperately looking for food?

(They've still got plenty of water in there)

[Merlin M]

Yes, they will get used to it

[RacingSnake]

They're little buggers, just checked now, and looks like they have just sat in their water dish and thrown all the water out! lol

[Merlin M]

Ah tortoise tantrums are funny!

When I wound my two down last year they started eating the soil, so I would keep an eye out for that, not sure how common that is though

[Catwoman63]

My younger torts go mad looking for food the first week or so then by the end of the second week of windown they don't bother, by the end of third week they are not bothering to come out of their hides, so they do stop looking when temps are lower and shorter x

[RacingSnake]

Thanks guys that's reassuring - yes I have read that they could eat their substrate and the suggestion was to replace the substrate with a towel - so I'll keep an eye out for that.

looked just again and their nice clean water dishes I've only just sorted have been destroyed again

[Suze65]

I have to be honest I have never done wind down this way. I don't really understand it. For the past 40 years my old ones have been allowed to wind down naturally. They wouldn't naturally starve themselves in the wild with temperatures still hot. So why do it in captivity.

[RacingSnake]

Suze, so how would/do you do it?

Just reduce the temperatures/daylight?

[Catwoman63]

For the first week, same heat and light as normal, second week reducing heat and light hours over the week, third week, reduce even further till at the end of week three it's only background heat, week four reduce background heat daily, last few days background temp no higher than 10c, ....that's for my larger juveniles.

The adults do it themselves, although I still windown the temp and light,.

Tyler had a 3 week windown as he is only small.

That's just how I do it x

[sandy]

Originally Posted by RacingSnake

They're little buggers, just checked now, and looks like they have just sat in their water dish and thrown all the water out! lol

The first week is always the worst:0)
They will also eat their own poo, if you don't remove it:0)
Once you start to shorten the days, its gets easier. Especially if the temps outside are colder too.
My adults start to wind themselves down really slowly from the end of August, they still eat but far less. Which makes it so much easier when winding them down in a GH. As you don't see all of this:0) They then bury themselves down when they are ready.
The smaller ones do have to come inside, which because we artificially keep light/heat at the same temps through out the day, will always be more active.