Hi, have been reading the various posts on hibernation on the forum, but am still unsure whether to hibernate my tortoise. I have a 6 year old female spur thighed tortoise called Daisy. This is now her second winter with us, last year she showed no signs of wanting to hibernate and she didn't. As she is kept indoors we thought that she may not either this year, but due to the recent cold spell she has slowed down somewhat and stopped eating, she does come out everyday from her sleeping compartment of her house and then wants to come out of her house altogether. We weighed her 4 weeks ago and she was 800g 160mm long which was a good weight for hibernation, but now her weight has dropped to 690g, we are now thinking that as she seems to want to hide herself away after a short spell of activity every morning and has not eaten for a couple of weeks she wants to hibernate but the weight is not as good. Should we hibernate her? Is it worth it for what could be just 4 - 6 weeks or should we keep giving her warm baths and try and increase her temp in house and encourage her to eat again?

Hi Julie
Personally I think it would be best to start next year after you have prepared yourself on how and when to hibernate her, have a read on the hibernation care sheets on the left hand side. Turn up the temps and encourage her to eat and walk about for a while, getting her stimulated.  Her weight is spot on at 0.195 which is up in the higher bracket, so I wouldn't worry about that.
Hope this helps
Jane, Keya &  Molly

Hi, Thanks for the help! Will start encouraging her tomorrow morning.