Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am the person who found the deliberatly deformed turtle with bands wrapped around her shell to shape her into a very strange and pitiful looking creature. We cut off the bands and set her up in a habit and while the weather was warmer she ate pretty well even though she was underweight, and I had been advised by the group not to hibernate her this year. I have lamps on her and an electric heater to keep the room toasty warm, but she seems to know it's winter and hides under her leafy branches and sleeps most of the time. I tried, just out of curiosity, filling half her container with leaf mulch and tipping it so there was a few inches of water on one end and she immediatly dug under and I haven't seen her since. Should I just keep her room cool and let her sleep the winter away? I am afraid that if I don't I will harm her more than if I keep trying to get her to eat and live as if it were a different season. I don't understand how she knows it's winter because the room was kept warm and she had lighting for about 12 hours a day, but she wants to hibernate and I don't know how to stop her. Any advise on this would be greatly appreciated. This poor turtle has been through so much already, and I don't want to kill her by trying to help her! Thanks!

What is her setup like? I would get all the leaves out and just have her in tank that has a water temperature of 72-75 degrees and a basking platform with a temperature of 85 degrees (not sure if in your previous thread folks mentioned to make sure your basking area provides heat and UVB lighting)

Now their are several things that may be coming into play here. If you found the turtle in the wild it may actually have been living wild for some time now. Some JERK may have put those bands on her and then released her for kicks (who knows -- I do turtle rescue and trust me I've seen just about everything). If she is wild she may just not be adjusting to tank environment right now. ALso if she has hibernated before she may just be slowing down and not wanting to hibernate sensing that it is that time of year.

DO NOT ATTEMPT TO HIBERNATE HER. You cannot keep the water temp. cool enough in your house to sucessfully do this and she will gradually just starve to death.

If you keep her in a basic tank as mentioned and cover the sides and back of the outside of the tank with some paper to give her a sense of security she may just come around.

If she continues not to eat there could be underlying health issues causing the problem and trip to vet would be a good idea.

Good luck
Steve