Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This is my turtles first year in an outdoor inclosure and im not sure when to bring them in for hibernation. i live in oregon and the temp is getting to be about 45-50 at night now. i know the procedure on how to hibernate them just not when to do it. i also know that i could just add extra mulch and let them do it themselves but ive had them for over ten years and i wouldnt want to risk loosing one or more to the cold. also i am getting two more in about a week if they check out healty and fat can i hibernate them as well or sould i wait till next year?
thanks in advance for your help.
cindy

Hi, I have three toeds outdoors in a pen too, and have been watching the weather to see when I should bring mine in for semi-hibernation. Mine don't seem to even try to dig in for regular hibernation. The temps here have been going down to 45 at night, too, with the highs in the 70s. Usually I wait until mid October to bring them in, check each for any health problems, give each a warm soak, then separate the males from the females and place them in boxes filled with shredded newspaper. The boxes are placed where the temperature will never go below freezing, in an unheated area of the house. During the winter, once each week or two, I wake the turtles up and let them soak for a few minutes, then place them back in the shredded newspaper to return to sleep. It's important that they don't dry out. I've been using this semi-hibernation set-up for over 10 years without any problems, so it works for my turtles. Once the overnight lows stay above 45 in the spring (around mid April here), I place them back outdoors.