Hi chaps, Mr Brown has already had an extra week of hibernation, he's been a sleep for 9 weeks, he now weighs 266g ( 269g at start of hibernation) , He seems content, he's in the fridge, just wondering if i should leave him any longer or should i wake him up now, he is 3 yrs old.

thanks for your help

Debs 

Hi Debs,

Thats brilliant, virtually no weight loss! A tortoise that size could easily go 12 weeks but its really up to you. If the snows hit you and its going to be a struggle to find any decent food for your tortoise I would consider another week at least.

Well done, hope mine go as well as this this year!

Hi Debs, that is brilliant news, very well done. I would be interested to hear your methods ready for when I hibernate my 3 rd old Keya next year. She was a bit poorly and I didn't want to risk it.

Hi Dave

Molly  (Adult hermans) is into her 6th week in hibernation. She has lost a total of 20gms already which I suprised at as she is in a very deep state and the temps are staying at between 4.2-6.3 but mainly stable at 5.2ish. Her weight is 0.1995 which is ok but her overall 10% body weight to loose is 24gms which is  a bit close at this stage. Is this somethign that I should be concerned about and what could be causing the loss?
Jane, Keya & Molly

Hi Jane,

I've got to be a bit careful because this is only my own opinion based on my own hibernation experience with various methods.

Last year I used the fridge method for some of my larger Hermanns tortoises for the first time. These tortoises were around the 500-600 gram mark at the time. The tortoises did not bury into any substrate in their hibernation boxs, they literally sat it out at the surface. All but one showed a fairly significant weight loss during their time in the fridge, nearing a 10% weight loss. The thing I found amazing was that within 48 hours of waking them they were all back at their pre hibernation weight. So in 48 hours some gained 50-60 grams! I can only put this down to them drinking copious amounts of water and rehydrating their whole system. They were eating but not 50-60 grams of food a day!  Therefore I think they displayed excessive dehydration in the fridge.

At the low temperatures required for hibernation a tortoise shoud not really lose any actual body weight in terms of "reserves". Their metabolism is barely ticking over, requiring little energy. They can use energy changing position but again, minimal.

So I think the 10% rule is important as it can indicate fluid loss. I'm not using the fridge this year but by allowing the tortoises a period to settle and bury themselves prior to full hibernation temperatures I've seen a huge reduction in the amount of weight lost. My small Horsfields for example have lost 1 gram each since the start of the wind down at the end of October. I put this one gram down to the emptying of the gut contents alone.

So my questions would be, what hibernation method are you using, which substrate and are the tortoises burying themselves in the substrate at all? I feel that proximity to the surrounding substrate by burying themselves limits dehydration in a tortoise equally when awake or hibernating.

Was the majority of the weight loss in the first week and has it slowed in subsequent weeks? This is something I've seen before and it has levelled off to virtually nothing.

Having rambled on here I must say that all the tortoises which had this loss and subsequent speedy regain of weight showed no signs of ay problems once out of hibernation, all up and running in a day.

If your Molly's losses have slowed to a gram or two a week in recent weeks, I'd keep going for another couple of weeks, eight weeks is still a good hibernation in my view. If theres no further loss you could consider going a bit further.

Hope this rambling helps in some way!

Hi Dave
Meant to say coming up to 5th week not 6th..
1st week she lost 14gms which I didn't worry too much about. Second week she lost 1gm so I decided to weigh every 2 wks like I mentioned in a previous post. Last week her 4th week she lost 5 gms which would average 2.5 gms per wk, so in total so far makes that the 20gms. I am doing the fridge hibernation in a box with lots of shredded paper.
Jane

Hi Jane,

What was her weight at the start of the wind down and when she went in the fridge?

Hi Dave
she was 2440 (0.2005) and her weight now is 2420 (0.1988)
Jane

Hi Jane,

I was asking her weight because you said she was an adult Hermanns, and said 10% would be 24 grams. This would have made her 244 grams at the outset, a bit small for an adult Hermanns.

As she was 2440 grams at the start a 10% loss would be 244 grams, not 24 grams. Therefore she''s lost less than 1% since going into hibernation!

This hibernation business does funny things to the brain you know don't know why I had 24gms fixed in my mind? so glad I posted, thank Deb's for starting this post,and so sorry if I took over a bit
So looks like my Molly is doing fine phew. Thanks for your help.
Jane, Keya & Molly

Thanks Dave for following my thread, I think I am sorted now until the next weigh in
Jane, Keya & Molly

No problem Jane. With the new numbers she's going exceptionally well.

I'm off to apply for Countdown.

hi chaps,

Just to say a quick thanks to all those who replied to the post, i have left Mr Brown for a little longer, he will have had ten weeks (i think, better check my dates when i get home) so i think i am gonna get him up towards the end of this week, were just refurbishing his house.lol.

We have really missed the little fella.....so hope every one's hibernation goes well, and once again many thnaks.

Debs