Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Good evening, my friend just called me she lives in south florida about 9 months ago while mowing the lawn she found a tortoise. It is a testudo graeca. She noticed over the past 2 weeks he has been slowing down and not active, and the shell feels cold. Today the tortoise has his head all the way in the shell(which apparently he never does) and legs out. She thinks he may be dead. I'm guessing that he has gone dormant. He was in good health before and relatively young (Probably less than 8 yrs) Is there any difinitive test to tell if he is dead or alive that I could talk her though on the phone? He lives inside and if he is dead or dormant he needs to be taken care of accordingly. any help would be appreciated.

First things first, you need to know if the tortoise is definitley a form of Testudo graeca. Certain subspecies of T. graeca do not go dormant or hibernate in nature so keep this in mind. Lybian and Moroccon examples including some others do not hibernate in nature and will not survive such cold temperatures. Turkish examples (T. graeca ibera) do very well in colder climates but you need to be accurate in determining which subspecies you have.

If you have a Russian, Hermanns or Marginated, it may be getting ready for hibernation. However, if the tortoise has never acted this way before it very well may be sick or even dead already.

How do you tell if it's dead? Pick it up. If the animal is completely limp or stiff it is obviously dead. When tortoises enter their dormant stage they normally pull all limbs, head and tail into the shell and simply become inactive. As the temperature changes, the tortoise digs either further down (when temps get colder) or it digs up (if the temps get warmer).

Tortoises also need quite a good amount of preparation before entering hibernation. They need to be gradually cooled, their daily light cycle needs to gradually be lessened and they must have empy guts when it comes time for the big slumber. Tortoises fast for several weeks in nature prior to hibernation and this must be replicated in captivity in order to avoid severe health problems and even death.

I stop feeding my tortoises for 4 to 6 weeks and during this time I let the temperature slowly drop more and more every few days and keep giving them less light each day. I also soak them twice a week until they completely stop passing any fecal matter. By this time the temperature has dropped dramatically to 40 degrees and the tortoises enter their individual hibernaculums (which are plastic sweater boxes and/or cardboard boxes filled with aspen wood shavings or newspaper clippings).
The boxes are then placed into a refridgerator set at 40 degrees. I keep an airpump on the outside of the fridge which pumps fresh air through airline tubing into the fridge so the animals have a constant supply. I also keep several cups of water on each shelf to help w/ humidty so that the tortoises do not dehydrate drastically. I check and weigh them once a week to make sure they haven't changed too much and come spring I begin waking them up.

If your tortoise is not dead it may have developed some kind of health issue, if this is the case please describe the animal's appearance and/or behavior so one of us can help you out.

The tortoise may also not be warm enough....

hope this helps

-Chris

I also just realized you mentioned your friend lives in south Florida and that the tortoise was found...you very well may have a Gopher Tortoise...if this is the case the animal should be released immediatley since these animals are highly protected and more than often do not fair well in captivity. Can you get a picture of the animal?

definately not a gopher. I'll see if she can post an image, definately either a greek or hermans or some sub group. My guess is that she found him after he became active last spring. The winter was relativly cold. one additional question, the head is in and rear legs are out and the tortoise didn't respond to them being touched, when they are dormant do they have any response?
thanks for your help, I forwarded the post to her.

From your description it sounds like the tortoise is dead.

Lightly pinching the soft tissue of the legs should produce some response even if the tortoise is in hibernation.

Ed

>>definately not a gopher. I'll see if she can post an image, definately either a greek or hermans or some sub group. My guess is that she found him after he became active last spring. The winter was relativly cold. one additional question, the head is in and rear legs are out and the tortoise didn't respond to them being touched, when they are dormant do they have any response?
>>thanks for your help, I forwarded the post to her.
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Ed @ Tortoise Keepers
Trying to keep the fun in Chelonian care