Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have my pair of Easterns housed in a 5' pool in the garage for the winter. I have lights for a day/night cycle & want to put a heat source there. I'm debating between a merc. vap. bulb to provide heat & UV, but it obviously won't be supplying heat at night. My other option is a ceramic, which will always provide a warm spot in the enclosure, but require an additional (3rd) fixture so the light stays, while also not providing UV. I don't think the UV's a huge issue as turtles would normally be hibernating all winter & not get it anyway & my turts are housed outside the rest of the year...

They have both slowed WAY down on their eating & are not hanging out near my current hot spot, provided by a regular bulb. But it's also not as cold yet as it will get here soon...

What do you all think?
-----
Robins Critters
1.0 Corn snake Jack Skellington
1.1 Hog Island Boas Harley & Isaboa
0.1 Albino Sonoran Gopher Snake Jasmine
0.1 Western Hognose Addy the Adder
1.0 Tricolor Hognose Yoshi
0.2 Leopard Gecko Tang & Roxy
1.4 Crested Geckos Fox Mulder, Zoe, Peek, Rosencrestie & Gildensticky
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink Indigo
1.1 Eastern Box Turtles Squirtle & Yurtle
1.1 Pacman Frog CamoFrog & Buffy the Cricket Slayer
1.0 Southern Toad L.T.-Little Toad
0.2 Tiger Salamanders Tiger & Sally
1.1 Mossy Frogs Kermit & Kate Mossy
1.1 Firebelly Newts Wayne Newton & Thandie Newton
1.1 Cats Gus & Mena

Where do you live (state), what is the photoperiod (number of hours of daylight), and how warm is your garage (now and in winter). Remember also, that the floor and soil may be cooler than the air temperature in the garage.

Also, how old are your Easterns and in what condition? Why not let them hibernate. I am in NJ and mine hibernate in their outdoor pen.....I was nervous the first year but they are going into their fourth winter so I am more relaxed now. I loosen the soil (will be doing that today) and pile extra leaves and such on top for insulation when it gets real cold.
If they stay in the pool, you can't do that. However, you may be able to get it cool enough to hibernate (depending on where you live). Else you will have to extend the photoperiod and keep them warm enough to remain active, eat, and digest.

I live in Northern Utah. My yard gets several feet of snow each year. The garage right now is around 60, I'm not sure how cold it'll get in the winter, but not freezing. It's attached to the house.
My turts are about 4 years old & in good condition. They gained weight last winter as I brought them inside the herp room & they stayed alert & active. Over the summer they each gained about 10 grams, then each dropped about 5 between August & September. I brought them in on 9/24 when our temps got into the 50s. Their outdoor enclosure is a pool as well, so I'm just not sure it's deep enough for them to hibernate in, which is why I created a garage enclosure. Currently, our days are about 13 hours.

They are barely eating now & are quite inactive. Perhaps I should just keep the heat off & let them hibernate? I've never done this before & am, of course, nervous.
If they seem to be hibernating, do I ever offer food? Do I dig them up & put them in their water ever?
-----
Robins Critters
1.0 Corn snake Jack Skellington
1.1 Hog Island Boas Harley & Isaboa
0.1 Albino Sonoran Gopher Snake Jasmine
0.1 Western Hognose Addy the Adder
1.0 Tricolor Hognose Yoshi
0.2 Leopard Gecko Tang & Roxy
1.4 Crested Geckos Fox Mulder, Zoe, Peek, Rosencrestie & Gildensticky
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink Indigo
1.1 Eastern Box Turtles Squirtle & Yurtle
1.1 Pacman Frog CamoFrog & Buffy the Cricket Slayer
1.0 Southern Toad L.T.-Little Toad
0.2 Tiger Salamanders Tiger & Sally
1.1 Mossy Frogs Kermit & Kate Mossy
1.1 Firebelly Newts Wayne Newton & Thandie Newton
1.1 Cats Gus & Mena

UV lighting isn’t really important for the winter. Heat is. Photoperiod is, too. However, box turtles are “wired” to be very synchronous with season, meaning that if they were exposed to the outdoor photoperiod till late Sept., they already know something’s up.

A pool in a garage is a poor setup for overwintering, whether for hibernating or keeping them active. Winter is dry and drafty, and even the best garages don’t insulate well against this (why they’re garages), so dehydration will be a real issue for the animals. Insofar as hibernating them outside, in UT, altitude is everything. Some parts of your state routinely freeze at night during August!

An indoor setup, more indoors than most garages, that allows control against temperature and moisture swings is the suitable way to go for keeping the animals active through the winter. Letting them dig into soil under leaf litter outside, with insulation (leaves, straw, etc.) packed firmly around the outside walls and top of the pen will work if you’re not too high up.

I see it as two options...either brumation or full activity. Keeping them in the 60's or even high 50's is kind of a metabolic "limbo". They probably won't eat, but they will burn calories. It is very common for this scenario to lead to illness.

If the garage stays regularly in the 40's or very low 50's, I'd say that you can construct a brumation chamber for them full of moist leaf litter and compost(PHboxturtle showed a picture of a great one she built). You can always purchase a small refrigerator and keep them at about 45 degrees through the winter. They would need to be in sweater boxes with moist leaf litter and compost.

If you keep them active, they need the whole 9 yards... heat and UVA/UVB lighting (if they're eating and metabolizing, they need the full spectrum lighting). It sounds like you did a great job last year. I'd do exactly the same thing. Either that or brumation would be the choices I would consider.

I hope this helps. Good luck.

Forget about vercury vapor lights, heat, ect. thats a waste of electricity and a fire hazzard, and they would be, like one other poster said, "in limbo" and confussed, and would probably loose much more weight than brumating. I say put them in a sweater box with moist but not wet soil or peat or mulch melt or drill some air holes in the sides, and leave them undisturbed untill spring, only checking once a month to make sure they are still moist, and make sure to provide a water dish just in case.
If your garage has a window that would be ideal, so they would know when it's time to slowly start to wake up. If not put them inside in March by a window untill they wake up.
That's my two cents, remember the KISS rule!