General Care Discussion :: Hibernation Question!!!

[pavelgype]

Hello,

I have four RES that are about 3 months old.
I went out of town this past weekend, and it is cold
where I live. My RES are out in my garage. My electricity
went out while I was gone, therefore the heater didn't keep the
water temp good. Two of the RES look like they are hibernating,
they don't really move but I can see them breathing. What should I do???

Thanks,
pavelgype

[TheComputerGremlin]

Okay, you can slowly bring them out of hibernation, and I mean slowly. You'll want to gradually increase the water temperature over the next 24 or so hours. It's possible that just plugging back in your water heater will do that, I notice that it took my water heater over 12 hours to go from about 40 degree water to 76 degree water. But you'll want to watch the temp. The turtles should start to get a bit more lively as the temps increase, and they should be back to normal in a day or two.

I don't think you want them to remain in hibernation because they likely still have food trapped in their bowels that will rot.