On the 4th wk of wind down,

Male Hermann is doing fine he started to naturally winding down himself several weeks before I started them, but the female she's was very active and was still eating for england, After starving them both at same time, at wk 2 I noticed she started eating the substrate so cleared it all away and put a old bath towel in their pen, my question is now its the beginning of the 4th wk should i give the female another/ extra 2 wks to allow for the fact she had been eating the soil/sand substrate.

thanks Cath 

Hi
My friend is having the same issues as Cath. She has a tortoise of 2 years and is hibernating him for the first time and feeling pretty nervous, naturally. Today she told me that he is now at the end of his third week of wind down and without food but on Saturday she found him eating his pellet substrate. She is wanting to know what she should do now...he has no food in his stomach but but should she wait another week now for the substrate to be passed out of his system..she was hoping to box him up early this week.
Please help as I do not know how to best advise her other than waiting for him to pass another bowel movement in hope that the substrate is through his system.
Any advice you can give would be truely appreicated.
Many thanks
Nicole

Hi,

God this hibernation lark is a bloody nightmare isnt it? Roll on Spring thats what i say :-) It wouldnt hurt to keep them up a while longer with regular baths to clear any substrate they may of eaten.

Ali

Hi Ali
Yup, you are right there :o)
How long can a 2 year old survive awake without food...it feels bad :o(
Roll on Spring!
Nicole

You would be surprised how long a tortoise can last without food! I had one that didnt eat for 5 months :-)

Ali

Hi Nicole,

A tortoise can go a long time without eating as athey they wind down everything slows down so they require even ess energy from food than usual. It is really important to keep the tortoise drinking and hydrated as much as possible. During hibernation a tortoises water filled bladder acts like a reservoir and stores all the waste products they would normally pass from the body so its important your tortoise is hydrated, the more water in the bladder and body, the more diluted the stored waste products are. These dont cause the tortoise any problems (as long as its not dehydrated) and will be flushed from the body soon after the tortoise wakes and has its first big drink of the year.

Like you say, roll on the spring but it is all worth it

Thanks Ali,sorry to be wasting your time,

after posting  I read the page on Hibernation AGAIN and found the advice about eating substrate, and how to put them on a towel, an postpone for a couple of weeks, derrrr , dont know how I missed it must of read that page several times before, thanks again though for your reply, Harry the male will be going down on fri, and going to leave Milly female the one thats a little piggy with the substrate another wk or 2, see if she passes anything.     thanks Cath