Temperatures are forecast to be very low tonight and over the weekend........the Midlands area is predicted to go as low as -12c.  Please double-check your heaters/thermostats if you have tortoises hibernating in brick outbuildings and make sure your heating systems can cope with such low temperatures. 
We would also recommend that you turn your heaters up if you have tortoises over-wintering in greenhouses or keep tropical species....if in doubt, bring them indoors.
Lets hope this cold spell passes quickly.

Jo
Tortoise Protection Group

Hi
Just out of interest, does anyone have a generator incase there is a power cut, so the fridge can keep running. I had this thought when I saw how in the west country they were having power cuts, the first thing that sprang to mind was "What about the torts hibernating in the fridge" (I did think about those poor people afterwards)
I would like to consider this for my 2 next year, but don't know where to begin? A piece of mind thing, as you do!!!
TFYH
Jane

Hi Jane,

I haven't with mine, though I have got an audible alarm. It does sound a good idea. It would be interesting to check how quickly the fridges warm up if there was a power cut as they are pretty well insulated.

TC
Darren

Hi Darren
As Molly is out of hibernation I think I will try and see how long it takes before it warms up, my husband seems to think it would hold the temperature for quite a while, but it would be interesting to see how long. I will post when I have done my little experiment.
Jane

I tried this myself, a good 6 weeks before mine went into the fridge......my little village used to be notorious for power cuts so I thought I would experiment in advance to save me stressing when it happened

It took 4 hours before there was any noticeable change, 6 hours and it rose to 7c and it took 10 hours before it got to 10c.....this was in a centrally heated room, I did not simulate similar conditions in the room, far too cold in Newcastle to turn the heating off LOL.  But, should a power cut occur, my heating goes off too, so in theory, it should take even longer for the fridge to warm up as the ambient temperature would have dropped too.

Hope this helps

Jo

Hi Jo/Darren
Well I done my experiment with my fridge over a period of 7 hrs, and it didn't hold out like your one Jo. I had the same environment temps that you did, but it took a quick leap at the beginning, it did stabilise a couple of hrs later, but still went over the safe temp to keep the tort in hibernation 10c. what fridge do you have? mine is a small larder fridge, it held the temps really well without too much flucuation when Molly was hibernating, so  abit surprised it didn't do as well as your fridge did. Not sure I would trust it in a power cut now..  See below

3pm with the temp @ 5.8 turned the electric supply off
4pm 8.8
5pm 10.1
6pm 10.4
7pm 11.05
8pm 11.08
10pm 12.02
TFYH
Jane

Hi Jane,

That's really interesting -- and a bit worrying, as I always thought that as long as you didn't open the door the fridge would hold its temperature for much longer.
Was there anything in the fridge? The reason I ask is that we are always told to fill up the empty spaces in the fridge with sealed bottles of water, as the mass of water, when it reaches the desired temperature will hold the temps for longer than air does and help to generally stabilize the temperatures inside the fridge. If you wanted to do your experiment again, but with lots of sealed bottles of water on their sides or standing up in the fridge, I'd be interested to see what the results are.

Nina

Hi

Yes it was packed out with water. The only thing I can think of is that I had only put the fridge on for 24 hrs maybe it wasn't long enough to get really cold and penetrate the water bottles, I'll keep the fridge running for a few days and then do the same experiment. I was sure that it would hold better than that, but we'll see what happens next time.
 Jane

Hi Jane,

I'm surprised it cooled down that quickly tooo & would have though 24 hours would have been sufficient to cool the water in the bottles?

Will def have a go with mine too.

Thanks

TC
Darren

Hi Darren
It will be interesting to see what happens with your fridge. I supose it also depends on the actual cubic size of the fridge, mine is 3.71.
Jane

Yep it will,

I've got the large double door glass fronted Coca Cola type, but I've insulated the doors with ploystyrene, to minimise heat transferrring into the fridge. Going to start getting them up on Saturday - a few at a time:-)

TC
Darren

Hi Darren
I thought so, mine is small isn't it? I was thinking of putting blankets over the fridge to see if that will help keep the cold in longer. I am experimenting this week-end so will keep you posted. Good luck with the awakening, and lets hope the weather takes a tortoise turn for the better for all of us..
Jane