General Care Discussion :: hibernating questions

[joe]

Hello,
My question is about hibernating, is it OK for a res to hibernate who has never hibernated before while we have owned it?
We have had a female egg laying res for about 7 to 9 years. It has lived in So Cal weather in a plastic pond since we got her and it's heated in winter and in the cooler evenings to try and keep it 70 to 85. Summer the water is fine if not to hot so then she get to go in our pool until we change the water in the plastic pond.

She has never hibernated while we have owned her and were giving it to a friend with a human fresh water pool to live in, they have 2 res females. I'm told hey let there RES's hibernated in the colder so cal winters. I guess they stay at the bottom for almost 3 months coming up seldom to eat?

Will it be a problem for our RES to adapt to that cold water temps when she has had 24-7 heated pool?

[steve]

I don't see why a healthy adult RES couldn't hibernate. Regarding the pool and their RES, how do they keep them? What do they feed them? How much water is in it?

[joe]

I did not see it myself yet my GF did so I'm relaying second hand info here but they keep there RES's in a human size pool with a 7'- 8' deep end, I'm guessing 10,000 gals probably more so plenty of water. They have basking areas on each end and a way out so they can assess the yard also. Unfortunately they feed pellets and didn't know of anything else until my GF mentioned the frozen veggies, blood worms and shrimp, feeder fish we feed so hopefully that changes.
My concern is they don't heat the pool so when it gets cold here in So Cal and it does get 30's 40's at night but usually warms during the day after the sun comes up but that water is going to be cold especially with that depth.
I did read the hibernation section in basic care on this site and it's saying not to and several reason why its dangerous? I'm not sure what the temp at the bottom of the pool is through the winter I'm guessing 40's maybe 50's and there is no leaves or mud to hide in.

[penelope]

Being from Ca. I know what you mean. The weather is crazy in the wimter. I kept a turtle in an outdoor pond years ago (not as big as a swimming pool, only about 20 ft x 10 ft. ) 35 degrees at night, 60 degrees some days, 70s the next. It never really hit a good constant temp. Seemed like it was always in limbo. My guy tried to hibernate, but never quite got there. All he got was really sick, so I wound up bringing him inside duing the winter. I don't know maybe with all the water in that pool the temp is a bit more stable. On the other hand, if she has been staying in a heated pond, it kind of seems like she is more along the lines of an indoor turtle. If it were me, I would be hesitant to send her to "the great outdoors"...but that's just me.

[joe]

I'm sure the pool will get cold enough to possible start the brumate but I don't know if it's cold enough to hold it, plus there is no mud, leaves or sediment to burrow into like I've read.

Your right it's like shes an indoor even though she is outside. The pond has the heaters on a timer so they come on well after sun down and off after it warms up and we change the time depending on weather. It's been so hot lately the water gets to hot so no heaters needed but I have to drain the pond and put some cooler water in there. Some times when it gets to hot we put her in our human pool for a bit while I change the water in the pond.
She gets pissed off when we get her out of the pool, she loves it in there swimming around going to the 9' deep end hanging at the bottom then the evil owner puts her back to the tiny pond. It's like going from an apt to living in a 10 room estate with 20 acres then being forced back into the studio apt.

[Diamondbacks4Life]

Go for it. Alot of people in states like cal just hibernate them in stocktanks, pond containers. They dont need to burrow into anything. I started hibernating my stuff the other year and they never hibernated before. They all came through fine. They didnt have anything to burrow into either. Plus im in pa so winter is not friendly. We hit the negatives alot.

As long as temps stay low and dont do rapid changes turtles make it fine. One thing i would do though is stop the heaters on your pond now. So it gets used to rising and falling temps in the cooler ranges. Also turtles dont eat at all during hibernation. Usually your susposed to stop feeding them a week before they go into hibernation. During hibernation they digestive system completely shuts down and any food in their system can actually start to rot inside them. Thats a bad thing haha.

[joe]

If the turtle does go to the new home I'm guessing it would hibernate because of the air temps getting below 40's sometimes 30's in winter so the water will be below 50 easy, I think.
At what temp do they hibernate, I read 50 degrees is the right temp or a good temp?
And is the hibernating time length depend on the water temp, so if we only had 1 month or a half month of cold weather obviously they would come out right?
How do you know when there going into hibernation so to stop feeding them?
What about the water temp being cold but not cold enough, I read it as the death zone?

[Diamondbacks4Life]

Yep sounds like an easy time for him if goes there.

Hibernation or actually brumatation should we say, since actually hibernation really only refers to birds and mammals is 50 and below. Aimming for lower is better.

Brumation occurs mainly because of falling temps and the length of daylight seen in a day(photoperiodism)

Yes they will come up on those warm early days. This spring for for example was crazy. We had two days hit 90s then had below freezing weather the next here. They all came up but went back to sleeping and didnt come up. It takes a week or two for the turtles systems to fully start running again so it doesnt hurt them to come up for 1 or 2 days.

For feeding i stop when basically they tell me. Just by noticing they becoming slower at normal activities like swimming, eating pr just plain eating less. It gets to be a big difference.

The Death zone is mainly for people who hibernate them indoors like refrigerators or garages, sheds. As temps can stay too warm. Outside with a large pool like that its gonna reflect
Natural water areas. You will not see that problem at all.

[Mom2RES]

Just out of curiosity, why would someone brumate them indoors?

[Diamondbacks4Life]

Just out of curiosity, why would someone brumate them indoors?

Main reason is some turtle/tortoises species must experience a cooling period to breed. Just in general to promote breeding. Res can lay eggs even without brumation but are more likely to breed if they experience it. Also in gerneral turtles that brumate are susposed to be in overall better health. I forget where i read an article on the health part but it just compared box turtles that were allowed to brumate compared to those that werent.