My 2 babies, Alfie and Daisey, have now been in the fridge for 8 weeks and have been doing great. They are 2 yr old Spurthighs.

Yesterday I left the fridge door open, by accident, and the temperature went up to 13c. When I checked them in the early hours of this morning I noticed that they had both moved from the middle of their boxes to the side - probably moving approx 5cm, but were back fast asleep.

I checked them again this afternoon and they were still fast asleep and no sign of any more movements and no wee. Will it be safe to leave them for a few more weeks which I would really like to do or should I wake them?

I am so cross with myself as they have done so well and then I stupidly leave the fridge door open - was open for about 30 mins

Thank you

Julie

Hi Julie. I wouldn't be too worried.

My torts are in soil boxes I check every day. They move even at very low temperatures. I sometimes find they have almost surfaced...other times done a quarter or half turn...but they are not awake or losing significant amounts of weigth. I doubt the short warmer period will have activated their systems significantly to rouse them from hibernation.

Having said that Julie, I am very happy to consider other opinions. There must be loads of you keepers out there who may think differently. This forum is for information exchange, we are all on-going learners aren't we?

Good luck from David in York.