Tortoise Care in Autumn

Mediterranean tortoises in the wild hibernate at some point during the winter. In older days, pet owners used to hibernate these tortoise for 4-5 months, but these long hibernation periods are dangerous as the tortoise uses up all its water and fat reserves and simply starves during this time. The smaller the tortoise the greater the danger as they have less reserves to see them through hibernation.

It is important to health check your tortoise thoroughly before hibernating. If it isn’t fit, then you must prevent hibernation with both heating and lighting strong enough to keep it active and feeding through the darker months.

The eyes and nose should be clean and discharge free. Runny nose syndrome is very infectious can readily spread to other tortoises but can also develop into more serious conditions. The shell should be clean. Fluid swellings or smelly areas could indicate shell rot.

Look inside a tortoise’s mouth – if you can manage to open it - and the gums should be pink and clean. Fungal infections result in cheesy white areas with blood spots and these can be so severe as to prevent your tortoise eating at all.

In autumn the days become cooler and shorter stimulating hibernation. Your tortoise becomes less active and reduces its feeding too. If the weather is bad in autumn your tortoise may stop feeding too early, so indoor basking areas are important. If your tortoise is underweight in this period, it is much safer not to let it hibernate It is better to control the temperature drop and fasting period prior to hibernation artificially. In this way the digestive tract can be emptied and there is no residual food which will produce toxins and gases during the hibernation period.

Hibernation boxes are now outmoded, and keepers hibernate their tortoises in controlled refrigeration units. Any freezing temperatures will kill a tortoise and so they should stay between 5 – 10⁰C to survive. Hibernation periods should vary between 8 weeks for a small tortoise to 16 weeks at the most, for a large one and because we wake them early from hibernation, the recovery period should also be strictly controlled.

Not all tortoises do hibernate, such as the Leopard,  and African spurred tortoises and it is important that you know which species of tortoise you own so that you do not try to hibernate one of these. Instead they need a warm, bright pen especially over the winter.

Tortoise keeping is far more advanced and scientific than the good old days of the Blue Peter tortoise and this column has only scratched the surface of their care. Research thoroughly, join chelonian groups and advisory networks and do the best for these wonderful creatures that you can. Perhaps they will outlive humans on the planet too.