sleepy tortoise

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Amber
Posts: 13
Joined: 24 Feb 2020, 21:33

sleepy tortoise

Post by Amber » 29 Jun 2021, 13:10

Hi again,
I last wrote in the autumn/late summer I think when Sheldon our tortoise was trying to go off and hibernate and you gave me advice about keeping him going. We managed to get him going again and he had a very busy winter marching about our house and going too and from his lights, waking up of his own accord. He now seems to be doing the same again - he had a spell outside in the garden when it was warmer but I bring him in when it's cooler and keep putting him under his lights but he just keeps going off to find the darkest hole to hide. I get the feeling that if I didn't wake him up each morning and put him under his lights he wouldn't get up! But I feel cruel when I keep on waking him up!
Should I let him have a proper sleep?
Many thanks
Amber

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Nina
Posts: 1993
Joined: 16 Mar 2017, 11:22

Re: sleepy tortoise

Post by Nina » 29 Jun 2021, 14:42

Hi Amber,

Sheldon's behaviour could be a result of the cold, dark days we've been having. Even if they are indoors they seem to sense when it is colder and darker outside, but the important thing is the temperature in his table. The temperature in a room has a huge effect on the temperature in the table, so if it is a cool day you will need to lower his lamp to make it warmer, and on hot days you will need to raise the lamp to lower the temperature.

What you are aiming for is a temperature of 30C directly beneath the light and at the height of Sheldon's shell (NOT measured by a thermometer on a nearby wall), and then you want a temperature of about 20C at the cool end. Apologies if I mentioned this in earlier correspondence, but are you measuring the temperature directly under the lamp? There are inexpensive thermometers that you can get that will do this, and I can give you links if you need one.

The other thing you can do is ensure that his indoor enclosure has lots of interest -- rocks, hides, plants, etc. to walk around, over, and under, as tortoises can also get very bored indoors, especially if they can see from one side of the table to the other without interruption.

You probably know all of this, but I suspect that if you get the temperatures right, and when the general weather warms up, that he will perk up again. In the meantime, I think would get him up and put him under the light in the mornings. In the past, when my tortoises have gone in to hibernation mode too early, because of cool weather, I've done this and found that after a couple of weeks the tortoise just sort of gets the hang of it and starts getting up by himself again.

Nina

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