Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi all,

I am having a hard time getting my box turtles temp to 50 degrees. We are having warmer temps here right now and even in my garage I can't get it much below 60. I did hibernate my baby and my adult who I am sure has never been hibernated. Would it make sense in their natural habitat that temps would get warmer for short periods of time? My baby has not lost any weight but the adult has lost 7 grams in what I feel is a short period of time. I did get them both out to check on them and soak them today. It took a while for them to wake up. They appear fine visually but I need to know if I need to take drastic measures to get them into a winter temperature? Should I be concerned about the weight loss in my adult? She was 460 grams on 11/7 and is now 453 grams. She stopped eating on her own almost 3 weeks before I put her into hibernation.

Please let me know your thoughts
Linda

I hear some people use refrigeration technique to herbinate their tortoises where they live because it doesn't get as cold. Maybe you can look that up.

We've been getting warmer weather here as well and beside that the weather in the Central Valley, CA, is kindda unpredictable.

And 7 grams in just a week is a lot IMO. They are considerably smaller than us, so 7 grams is quite a lot someone told me. When I was breeding my gecko and she lost a lot of weight after she laid, it freaked me out for this reason.

Here in NY the weather is in the 60's this week and today it was 68. Two weeks ago we had snow. The day before the snow, they all dug down to hibernate. Yesterday one came up and I saw him sitting in the pond. He went back under and I haven't seen any today at all. I really don't know anything about artificial hibernation. But seeing any come up on a warm day is not unusual. I really don't weigh mine, so I can't help you with that either.