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Old 22-10-2016, 03:30 PM   #1
Terri
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Default Hibernating Usain

Help needed please. Usain, my Hermann torty, really wants to hibernate but all the advice I have been given is not to let him. He weighs 8oz and measures 4.5 ins. He has really slowed down, not eaten for a couple of weeks and really wants to sleep. I have removed his little upturned clay pot that he likes to sleep in but he will just go into a corner and sleep. He has a basking lamp, an office lamp plus a daylight lamp which are on from 6am until 7-8pm every day. His room is heated by a night store heater and his table is an old bookcase, minus shelves and measures 4'6 x 3'6 . I wake him up every morning but he just yawns, torty yawns are amazing aren't they, and just wants to sleep. He has his warm bath every day and I mist his table. Part of me feels that he knows best and just let him do what is natural to him but then I try to follow the advice about keeping him up....confused ! Am I stressing him by waking him up all the time ? He seems to enjoy company and really responds to my voice so I was thinking about putting a radio in his room for him. Am I being stupid or what? I love him to bits, he's a great character but I feel at the moment that I am not really enjoying owning him as I am so worried about doing the wrong thing for his welfare.
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Old 23-10-2016, 08:01 PM   #2
CherryBrandy
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Crikey don't put Radio 1 on it'll frighten him to death. Forget the radio, they've lived millions of years without Chris Evans, a few more years won't harm. The office lamp wont do anything but put some cost to your electricity bill so Id take it away. Make sure you have UVA and UVB in your set up (lamp). Basking under UVA ony will strip VitA and wont give them the energy or Vitamin D they need so badly. 8 0z - are you sure that's right or have I misread. At 4.5 inches he would be 300grammes odd I think at least?

so to recap Basking lamp is fine as long as you have a UV A/B spectrum lamp also. Probably no heat at night as excessive heat can cause all sorts of ill health - let Tortoises cool down.

Ive not tested this Jackson ratio hyperlink - but take a look for a guide. I work of a manual one so not sure if calculations are ok on this one but let us know what you think.

Good luck, keep us posted. I think your tort is probably too hot, so test temperatures. Decide whether he will hibernate or not as the processes are distinctly different, CB

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Old 23-10-2016, 08:05 PM   #3
Merlin M
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You could try increasing the temperature at night a wee bit, cools down so much at night this time of year and even a couple of degrees is noticed by the shelled ones!
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Old 24-10-2016, 09:47 AM   #4
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Firstly, don't panic, measure him again in mm and weigh him in grams please, then check the Jackson ratio, to see where he is on the growth chart ( this is just a guid) so to convince a tortoise that it's still summer, there are two things to remember, night time temps, don't let this drop too low, about 17c , although some torts will manage lower temps, secondly hours of day light which you seem to have under control, then day time basking temps ( oh that's three things) again this depends on the individual torts but for little ones about 30/32c and then a decent background room temp of about 20c. So just adjust these things and see what happens. Keep observing him. And then you can do all this and some torts will sleep a bit longer in the winter months, but don't worry about it, my over winters, sleep more through these months. Good luck.
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