If you have any turtles in the houseyou are rightly wondering whether they hibernate or not. Well: if you don’t prepare the right temperature and environmental conditions for them, turtles at home cannot hibernate. If anything, they may become lethargic due to forms of hypothermia.
Turtle hibernation
Turtles, like other reptiles among other things, are ectothermic animals. This means that they regulate their body temperature based on the environmental temperature. So, when the cold weather approaches, some turtles (not all) go into hibernation. This is a phase during which they slow down their metabolism a lot and the functionality of the organs until they reach a state in which they do not eat at all and are immobile. (READ also: What to do if you find a turtle in the garden?)
This is a survival mechanism that many turtles implement to survive during a season in which they would find too much food and in which it would be too cold to allow them to regulate their body temperature.
Usually ours Testudo and the various pond turtles like the Trachemys (which we remember to be an invasive alien species) hibernate from October/November until February/March, it also depends a little on what the external temperatures are like. This, however, applies to turtles that are outside, which begin to eat less and slow down their metabolism as the home ambient temperature increases.
But at home? Where the temperature is always stable? How do they do it?
Rules for turtle hibernation
These are some basic rules of turtle hibernation:
Why don’t turtles hibernate at home?
In our homes turtles cannot hibernate for a simple reason. Normally hibernation is done with temperatures of 5-10°C. In our homes, however, there are always temperatures of 18-20°C. This means that there are not enough low temperature conditions for a turtle to hibernate.
As? Even if it is 20°C at home, your turtle seems apathetic, moves less, eats less and do you think it is hibernating? Very serious mistake. Turtles that behave like this at home means that they are not cared for properly ambient temperature. They’re not going into hibernation, they’re going in hypothermiaserious condition that leads these reptiles to a slow death through consumption and starvation.
So check that aquarium and terrarium lamps work, that the thermostat has a temperature of at least 26°C and that there is an adequate hot spot. As? Don’t have heat lamps and thermostat? Well, that explains why your turtles are starving themselves to death. Managing turtles correctly means working right away to provide them with the right accommodation and the right environmental conditions.
How to make turtles hibernate at home?
That said, it is actually possible let turtles hibernate at home. It’s just that you need to set up an environment that meets the right temperature requirements, which isn’t always easy.
Water turtle hibernation
With the water turtles that’s pretty much it impossible be able to recreate the conditions suitable for hibernation at home. Consider that in nature they hibernate by immersing themselves in lakes and streams, hiding under leaves and soil. And this with temperatures of 5-10°C.
It’s difficult to find a pond or temperatures like that at home. And don’t think that the aquarium is deep enough: you need one depth of at least 1 meter to make them hibernate, it is not feasible.
Water turtles usually do not hibernate at home. Just make sure that the thermostat and lamps heat the water properly.
Hibernation of land turtles
With the land turtlesHowever, hibernation at home is possible. But you will have to find an area of the house where there is a stable temperature between 5 and 10 °C, sheltered, dark and not too humid. If you have a cellar, a garage (but where cars or motorbikes do not circulate, otherwise the exhaust fumes could poison them), a basement that corresponds to these conditions, you will only have to prepare an adequate shelter.
Once done the slow preparatory fasting and once the intestines of the turtles have been emptied, you will have to put them in one wooden box or a cardboard box filled with clean, slightly damp soil and covered with dead leaves, newspapers or wood chips. This is to allow them to bury themselves.
The box must be equipped with appropriate ventilation holes and it must have an openable lid, so as to allow you to check that everything is fine. Just watch out protect them from micedogs and cats…
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