Hi, new poster here!

This is the fourth year that I've been hibernating my 7yr Hermann Seth and I never had any problems before.  Seth has only been in the fridge for a couple of weeks and last night when I came home from work and checked on him I noticed the shredded paper around his bottom was damp.  Looking at the underneath of the plastic box I could see that he had definitely urinated at some point within the last week.

Although I was very worried last night, as I know how important it is to wake a tortoise who has urinated.  I had to leave Seth in the fridge until this morning, as it was late evening time and also I obviously had no fresh food for him and couldn't get any until this morning.  I felt so guilty about leaving him, when all my head who do was scream the mantra "if a tortoise urinates during hibernation wake them immediately!"  Also not knowing when it was exactly that he weed and how quickly he would dehydrate added to this. 

I'm more upset for Seth though, as he had only a short period of hibernation and wondered if it was worse that he weed and was woken so early in the hib process?  Will he have had any benefit from hibernating now and will this make him disorientated and different in behaviour for a while?  Also was I right to leave him in the fridge last night, as it was quite late in the evening when i got home and checked him.  His weight was fine and I thought waking him late at night would mean his daily routine would be all out of wack.

Any advise or experiences of this would be appreciated, as I feel I have let my baby down by not allowing him his full 3 months of hibernation

Lisa

Hi Lisa

Please dont feel bad, it really is just one of those things - you did the right thing in getting him up, you may find that he is a little quiet over the winter, but it wont have done him any harm.  I would have left him overnight too - waking them up correctly is important, and the best time to do this is the morning so that they have the whole day to warm up again.

All the best

Arlene TPG

Hi Lisa,

Arlene is right you shouldnt feel bad as you definately did the right thing, these things happen and its best to be safe than sorry. You might find he will naturally try to wind down again as the weaher gets cooler and may go off his food but this is normal.

You did right and should be proud :-)

Ali