How a turtle goes into hibernation. How and how long do red-eared turtles sleep? How red-eared turtles sleep

Before you get yourself pet– red-eared turtle – you need to find out about the acceptable conditions for keeping it. Perhaps the very first thing people who have a pet want to know is how do red-eared turtles sleep and do they hibernate?

Turtle hibernation

Under natural conditions, animals simply need to hibernate due to a sharp drop in ambient temperature. If you observe the behavior of a turtle in nature, you can understand how much red-eared turtles sleep in winter. Under natural conditions, the period of sleep can reach five months, while the animal practically does not breathe. All body processes slow down, and fat accumulated during the waking period is spent on their implementation.
At home, it is not recommended to create conditions for hibernation turtles. This is a very labor-intensive process - you need to deprive your pet of food for a week, then place it in damp moss and gradually reduce the temperature of the environment around it. As a rule, to the question - how long do turtles sleep at home in winter - there is only one answer: no more than three months.

How do red-eared turtles sleep?

How do turtles sleep at home and do they sleep at all? Of course, every pet simply needs physical rest. Many people want to know whether turtles sleep at night, complaining that the pet is unusually active at night.

Every turtle sleeps, only in some individuals the duration of sleep and its frequency may differ. It is quite possible that the pet does not sleep at night, but during the day, when no one is in the apartment, it sleeps. There are also turtles that sleep all night and try to rest several times during the day. Sleep can find your pet everywhere - both in water and on land. According to observations, most domestic red-eared turtles prefer to rest on land.

What determines the red-eared turtle's sleep?

First of all, a turtle's sleep depends on its activity. If you want to know how much turtles sleep, which do not show much activity during the day, the answer will upset you a little. Due to the fact that the turtle is inactive, less energy is spent, therefore, the pet needs less time to sleep. And vice versa, if your pet moves very quickly and is constantly busy with something, his sleep will be sound and long.

Also, the length of rest may depend on the sex of the turtle. at a young age, almost no one knows. In most cases this is impossible to do. Sex is determined in adulthood by the length of the tail (it is longer in males) and claws (in boys, the front claws are longer than the back ones). Also, sleep may depend on the occurrence of any disease. Some are able to influence the disorder life cycle, the animal will either sleep too long, or vice versa – not fall asleep at all.

Basically, predict how long turtles sleep in different conditions, impossible. The duration of sleep is a purely individual factor, which depends primarily on the turtle itself, on its surrounding conditions and the rest it requires.

Some species of turtles that live in natural conditions hibernate. This helps them survive lack of food and other unfavorable seasonal changes, occurring in nature. But not all turtles living with humans follow their natural instincts; sometimes they do without long rest. And representatives of some species do not need hibernation at all.

Turtles sleeping and not sleeping

When buying a turtle to keep at home, you need to find out how to more information about her - what does she eat, does she hibernate? If your turtle does without rest in the wild, then you shouldn’t force it to sleep at home, like a naughty child. And if you can’t do without hibernation, you need to try to create all the conditions for this. And then help her come out of hibernation and return to life.

In nature, the following types of turtles hibernate: Central Asian, Mediterranean, Herman's tortoise. Living at home, these turtles can also fall into winter sleep, although this does not always happen.

All types of tropical tortoises, including the Egyptian, Tunisian, Panther, Indian, and African tortoises, as well as the kinix tortoise, do without hibernation. Warm climate and an abundance of food help reptiles survive without rest. Biologists warn that if you try to hibernate turtles that do not need wintering, they may die.

Some species, such as red-eared turtles, may or may not sleep in winter, depending on the climate and the area in which they live. As a rule, the red-eared turtle lives in fresh water. If it freezes for the winter, the turtle goes to winter quarters and sleeps peacefully until spring. If the climate is warm and the reservoir is non-freezing, the turtle may not sleep all winter.

Hibernation at home red-eared turtle- the phenomenon is not obligatory. If she likes everything, has enough food and warmth, she can survive the winter without rest. Sometimes individuals that have recently been removed from natural conditions can go into hibernation and continue to live according to the laws of nature. Over time, this goes away for some individuals.

Hibernation is also necessary for the red-eared turtle if they plan to get offspring from it next year.

Preparation

In the fall, when the turtle is about to hibernate, it begins to eat less, no need to be surprised. Metabolism in turtles is truly “turtle-like” activity digestive system slows down, the body digests food within 2-4 weeks.

There is no need to hibernate your turtle if there is undigested food left in its intestines. The gases that are released can cause serious harm to the health of the turtle. If you notice that the reptile has become slow and inactive, stop feeding it; for it, hunger is better than feeding during this period. The ambient temperature can be reduced slightly and the daylight hours can be shortened.

But 2 months before hibernation, the turtle needs to be well fed so that it can accumulate enough nutrients and nutrients in its body. useful substances. After all, during wintering the reptile loses up to 50% of its weight.

Warm baths, which can be done for the turtle 1-2 days before hibernation, will help activate digestion. During bathing, it will be saturated with water, since it has the ability to absorb water through the skin, and will get rid of food debris in the intestines.

On the eve of hibernation, the turtle should be healthy and of normal weight. If the weight and general state If you are concerned about the animal, you should not put it into hibernation artificially. And if she falls asleep on her own, keep her in a warm and dry terrarium with good ventilation.

In nature, a turtle hibernates by burying itself in sand or silt; you should try to create the same conditions for it at home. It is not necessary to take the mud home, but dry, clean sand in a box will do just fine. Fallen leaves or moss will be good material for our purposes; thanks to them, the terrarium will have normal temperature and air humidity.

You can do without sand and leaves if you put small pieces of paper in the box. Newspaper is not suitable for these purposes - it contains harmful printing ink. The box with the sleeping turtle should be kept in a dry room with above-zero temperatures.

It is advisable to maintain the temperature during hibernation at the same level, within +5-6 degrees. Temperatures from +2 to +10 degrees Celsius are allowed. If for a long time keeping a sleeping turtle at a temperature of +2 and below, or +10 and above, it can become seriously ill or die.

The duration of wintering depends on the size - for small turtles, 3-3.5 months will be enough for hibernation. The red-eared slider spends 4-5 months in hibernation.

Is it possible to sleep in a refrigerator?

Biologists recommend placing turtles in the refrigerator during hibernation, because it is easy to maintain the same temperature. First, the turtle is placed in a cardboard box, which is not much larger in size than the animal, the voids are filled with torn paper, and placed in a refrigerator with a temperature of +12 degrees. The temperature is reduced every day by 1 degree until it reaches +5.

To overwinter in the refrigerator, the turtle can be buried in a substrate of turf soil, sand and fine gravel. The layer of mixture above the turtle should be within 8-9 cm, but to prevent it from suffocating, the refrigerator door must be opened for 10-15 minutes every 2 days.

Pleasant awakening

Coming out of hibernation - important point in the life of a turtle, and she needs help to cope with this task. How to bring a turtle out of hibernation? All autumn reserves are used up, the turtle wakes up weak, exhausted and vulnerable to infections. At this moment, she needs care and quality nutrition more than ever.

After the turtle comes out of hibernation, it is warmed with a lamp or fan heater, then a “bath day” is arranged - in a small container with warm water. The turtle should bathe for about 10 minutes, this will restore the water balance in its body.

After hibernation, water procedures must be repeated every day for a week. They can be stopped when the reptile urinates for the first time. At first, her urine will be thick and dark yellow, but gradually the toxins will come out and it will become light in color again.

Now you can “sit down at the table,” of course, if its appetite has awakened along with the turtle. At first, the reptile may refuse food, this is normal, gradually everything will recover.

What signs can be used to determine that a turtle has safely emerged from hibernation? A healthy reptile's tongue will be pink or orange, without a coating. If it is bright red, the animal may be infected with something. The eyes should be clear and clean, also without plaque or discharge.

Turtle lovers often argue whether it is necessary to hibernate their pets? There is no clear answer in the literature on keeping turtles.

Some authors believe that turtles should not be hibernated, especially for novice owners. They motivate their point of view by the fact that it is quite difficult for an inexperienced tortoisekeeper to properly organize the conditions for hibernation. They advise feeding the turtle well and heating it properly, and then it will safely survive the cold season without hibernation. Other authors, for the benefit of turtles, recommend artificially inducing animals into a state of hibernation, but be sure to properly prepare the animal and control the temperature. In addition, it is believed that hibernation is one of the stimulating factors. Therefore, if next year you expect to get offspring from your animals, it is better to hibernate them.

What types of land turtles hibernate in nature?

IN natural conditions The following types of turtles hibernate:

• Mediterranean tortoise with a spur on the thigh (Testudo graecа);
• Central Asian tortoise (Testudo horsfieldii);
• Hermann's tortoise (Testudo hermanni);
• toothed turtle (Testudo marginata).

Under certain conditions, these species can hibernate safely in captivity.

What types of turtles in nature do not hibernate in winter?

Species of turtles that do not hibernate include:

• all tropical turtles;
• Egyptian tortoise (Testudo kleinmanni)
• Tunisian tortoise (Testudo nabeulensis)
• African spurred tortoise (Geochelone sulcata)
• Indian star turtle(Geochelone elegans)
• Panther tortoise (Geochelone pardalis)
• kinix tortoise (Kinixys).

Important: attempting to hibernate a member of a turtle species that does not hibernate under natural conditions may result in its death.

How to prepare a turtle for hibernation in captivity?

Important: Never try to hibernate a turtle if it has recently eaten.

As autumn approaches, turtles eat less and less - this is a natural process. The functioning of the animal's digestive system mainly depends on air temperature. When decelerating biological processes the body needs 2-4 weeks to last time the food eaten has passed through the digestive tract completely. Therefore, it is best not to attempt to hibernate a tortoise if there is a possibility that there may be undigested food left in the intestines. This is very dangerous: the gases released can cause potentially fatal colic. To properly prepare your turtle for hibernation, give it a period of fasting that should last at least three weeks. It should be noted here that exact time depends on the size of the reptile (small turtles need less time for the period of hunger, large ones need more). During this period, the animal should be kept at a temperature slightly lower than normal. It is also necessary to gradually reduce the lighting level.

Particular care should be taken to monitor the turtle's health during the period immediately preceding hibernation. If you suspect that your turtle is unwell, do not try to hibernate it under any circumstances. This may result in the death of the animal. The same applies to turtles that weigh below normal. In the absence of confidence in in full health It is recommended that turtles winter in a warm, dry and ventilated terrarium. It is also undesirable to hibernate animals that you have recently acquired.

How to properly hibernate a turtle?

To hibernate a reptile (do not forget that the turtle must fast before hibernation), it is placed in a small cardboard box, covered with scraps of paper, and the box is placed in a plywood or thick cardboard box. It is recommended to make an insulating layer of polystyrene foam between the cardboard box with the turtle and the plywood box. The structure is placed in a dry, frost-free room.

The most important factor during hibernation is stable temperature. Only maintaining the temperature within close parameters will allow the turtle to survive the winter without problems. The ideal temperature for hibernation, at which a turtle can sleep without the risk of freezing, is +5-6° C.

Important: the minimum temperature for successful hibernation is +2°C, and the maximum is +10°C. Prolonged exposure to temperatures above +10° C and below +2° C almost always leads to death or damage to the animal’s organs. The temperature can be checked using a thermometer designed for greenhouses (it shows the maximum and minimum temperatures). You can also purchase an electronic thermometer that has a built-in alarm (triggered if the temperature goes outside the specified limits).

If very high or low temperature, place the animal in a more suitable location until the temperature becomes acceptable again.

Turtles hibernating in the refrigerator

In some areas Mediterranean turtles During hibernation, it is recommended to place it in a temperature-controlled refrigerator. It is believed that this is a reliable and safe way to winter them. Each turtle is placed in the refrigerator in a separate cardboard box filled with torn paper. The size of the box should be slightly larger than the animal itself. The box with the turtle is placed in the refrigerator at a temperature of +12° C. Every day the temperature is reduced by 1 C until it reaches +5° C.

Baby turtles can also be hibernated, but in this case maintaining a stable temperature is especially important.

The method of overwintering in a refrigerator is especially recommended for turtles up to 7.5 cm long. Stable temperature and a natural microclimate is easier to achieve if the turtle is allowed to burrow in a tray with a loose substrate consisting of sand, fibrous potting soil and medium-sized gravel pebbles. The substrate layer is about 8-9 cm.But with this method, it is advisable to ventilate by briefly opening the door every 48 hours.

Awakening from hibernation

Waking up from hibernation is an important and stressful time for turtles, when they need to start feeding as quickly as possible. Since their internal reserves are depleted, reptiles become especially vulnerable to various infections.

Naturally, most adult turtles awaken from hibernation in March and early April. But already in February, you need to check the turtles every week and be prepared to bring them out of hibernation if they wake up or have lost more than 10% of their weight. As the time approaches for your reptiles to emerge from hibernation, check them more frequently and monitor their condition closely. If at the beginning of April the turtle is still dozing, it is better not to wait for it to wake up naturally, and wake her up. If the turtle wets itself, it must also be woken up immediately.

Health status of the turtle after waking up

Your turtle has successfully survived hibernation and is healthy if:

• its tongue is pale pink (or orange-pink if the turtle is from northern Africa), without white or yellow coating. A bright red tongue may indicate an infection.
• the eyes are completely open and clear. Otherwise, they are washed with cool water. Plaque or buildup may indicate infection;
• the tail does not emit an unpleasant odor and there is no discharge, especially yellow in color.

A turtle that has emerged from hibernation should be warmed under a lamp, and then placed in a tray filled with a layer of lukewarm water about 3 cm for 10 minutes. This will help restore moisture levels. Over the next few days, continue the ten-minute water treatments and observe when the reptile urinates for the first time. At first, the urine may be yellowish in color and a little thick, but after a few days the urine will return to its normal white color.

After heating and bathing, you can offer your pet food. Some turtles are immediately ready to eat, while others may begin to feed only a few days after waking up. An animal will not feed if its body temperature is not high enough. IN cold weather warm the turtle under the lamp. Additional warmth and lighting are what the turtle needs so that after hibernation its body begins to function properly.

If you have a pet living at home - a red-eared aquatic turtle, and it suddenly began to behave sluggishly, yawn frequently, and sit motionless in its aquaterrarium for a long time, then you should not worry ahead of time. Most likely, your turtle did not get sick, but decided to hibernate. This may be a surprise because when living in an apartment, turtles may never hibernate throughout their lives. But in some individuals, sometimes natural instinct takes over, and this is even good, since it is more likely to get offspring from such individuals.

In Russia and the CIS countries, daylight hours are reduced in winter, and even people do not have enough sun and length daylight hours, and the heating is not turned on immediately when it gets cold, let alone a heat-loving turtle. Therefore, it is even worth deliberately putting your red-eared turtle into hibernation for a few months, usually they are “put to bed” from November to February.

How to prepare a turtle for hibernation?

• Start giving her more food two months before hibernation, the body should stock up as much as possible big amount(during hibernation, she can lose almost half her weight). You can buy special supplements for turtles at a pet store.


• And a week before hibernation, stop any feeding.


• For ten days, slightly reduce the temperature of the turtle to 10 degrees; do not suddenly “freeze” the animal; it may die from temperature shock!


• before hibernation, then her intestines will be cleansed.


• During sleep, keep the temperature in the terrarium from 1 to 6 degrees (you can find a basement, but be careful, hypothermia is fatal to the animal).


• Humidity during hibernation is very important! Cover the turtle with moss and leaves, this is an ideal environment through which air will flow freely.

Good conditions for hibernation will allow the turtle to sleep for 3 to 5 months. But never feed her right after bedtime. , let her wake up her intestines and feed her only two days after waking up, it is better to wash her in slightly warm water so that her body temperature returns to normal faster. If you hibernate a turtle in November, then it should definitely wake up in February. Don't wait too long, warm her up carefully and wake her up yourself, otherwise she will lose too much strength.

Remember If your turtle doesn't want to hibernate, that's completely normal., because the higher the temperature these animals live, the more alert and active they are.

Many animals living in temperate climatic zone, hibernate in order to better survive the winter. During the cold season total, as well as the duration sunny days decreases sharply, and due to the fact that the body temperature of turtles directly depends on the temperature environment, these animals are forced to hibernate in winter so as not to die from hypothermia. In a state of hibernation, their heart rate noticeably decreases, metabolism and breathing also slow down, and any movement is reduced to a minimum, which allows rational use of fat reserves accumulated during the active period of the year.

The process of hibernation for turtles is extremely important, because it directly affects the production of offspring. Experts say that adults should spend about 6 months sleeping, from approximately October to the end of March, and for young animals, as a rule, this period can be 1-2 months. With age, the duration of the winter sleep period only needs to be increased. If the turtle is unwell, it must be cured before hibernating.

How do you know if a turtle is getting ready to hibernate?

As a rule, turtle activity decreases sharply in October. You can easily notice that the animal begins to eat poorly, its reactions become dull, and its movements become slower than usual. In addition, the animal is constantly looking for a quiet, dark place, where it usually tries to hide its head. It is during this period that you need to begin preparing the turtle for winter sleep.

In mid-September, the turtle must be shown to the veterinarian and make sure that the animal is completely healthy. In the terrarium, you should dim or completely turn off the lighting and, thus, reduce the ambient temperature to 18C.

IMPORTANT!

If the turtle does not fall into a state of complete rest within 8 - 10 days after carrying out all these activities, it is likely that it is sick with something.
How to monitor a turtle during hibernation?

The most suitable place for a turtle to winter may be an ordinary cardboard box or wooden box. In this case, it will be easier to observe the animal. Directly during hibernation, it is necessary to weigh the turtle every 5 - 6 weeks and monitor the decrease in its body weight. A weight loss of up to 10% of the total weight in adults and up to 15% in young animals is considered normal. In this case, the turtle loses more weight acceptable standards, then it is recommended to interrupt the hibernation process and show the animal to a veterinarian.

Equipment for wintering:

The box or box should be selected from hard cardboard, preferably with a lid. It should be approximately 70x70x80 cm in size, and there must be holes or cracks in the lid so that a sufficient amount of oxygen reaches the turtle. You can do without a lid, but then the box must be filled with a large amount of dry leaves or hay. Before this, about 10 cm of the box must be filled with ordinary soil, making sure that there is no clay, impurities and various small debris in it.

Room temperature:

The ideal temperature of the room, for example, the basement, in which the box will be located, should be +5 - +8 C.

IMPORTANT!

There is no need to feed the turtle during hibernation.

Awakening after hibernation

After about 3 to 4 months of hibernation, the turtle should wake up on its own. If this does not happen, then you should remove the animal from the box and place it in a terrarium, having previously raised the temperature in it to 20 - 22C. You can also leave the turtle in the box, but move it to a room at room temperature. Once your turtle is awake and moving around on its own again, the following steps need to be taken. The first step is to bathe the animal in a cool place from 24 to 26C. At the same time, the turtle must drink a lot, restoring the water balance in the body. After this, place it in the terrarium, turn on the lights and offer fresh food. In the first days after hibernation, the turtle may consume a minimal amount of food, but this is normal.

Wintering in the ground

If the premises with required temperature it was not possible to find, then it is quite possible to equip a place for hibernation on personal plot or in the garden. To do this, the box must be placed in the ground, and on top and sides, so that the animal does not suffer from frost, it must be insulated with a half-meter layer of leaves or straw, having previously secured the turtle’s winter shelter from rats and other animals with a protective metal mesh.

Wintering in the refrigerator

Another alternative to a suitable cool room for successful wintering is the use of a refrigerator. In this case, the following factors must be taken into account. First, the refrigerator must be large enough for the drawer to remain freely in it for a long time. And secondly, it should not be used for storing food. However, you should keep in mind that the back wall of the refrigerator is usually colder than the front, so the box with the turtle should not be placed close to the walls. In addition, once a day, you need to open the refrigerator for a while, thus maintaining natural air circulation. The temperature should be kept constantly at +4 – +7C.
IMPORTANT!

1. After waking up, the turtle must be bathed in water, the temperature of which should be approximately 24 - 26 C. In this case, the turtle must drink a lot. After this, you should move the animal into a terrarium or a special box and turn on the lighting.