How to tell whether a turtle is hibernating or dead?

A tortoise is dead if its limbs and head are exposed, and its limbs will retract into its shell during hibernation.

Turtles or other reptiles belong to temperature-changing animals. They can't produce high body temperature to digest food and transport nutrients, so they can only take the initiative to eat with the help of sunlight or artificial heat sources to make their body temperature reach normal temperature. When the temperature of artificially raised soft-shelled turtle is lower than 20 degrees, it must be heated by using a heating bulb, a heating pad or an infrared heater.

Reptiles need to overwinter for reproduction, but the overwintering methods are different. In winter, they need to be cooled to hibernation temperature for a period of time, which can effectively promote their estrus. Simply put, there should be a little temperature difference to make it a little physiological. Before hibernating, you should give the tortoise some fat. Starting from September, soft-shelled turtles should be fed twice a day for a month to store enough wintering fat. By the first 10 month, the tortoise stopped eating. Soak the soft-shelled turtle in lukewarm water, stimulate the soft-shelled turtle to defecate with warm water, clean up the intestines, and discharge the residual feces in the body? So as not to stay in the intestine for a long time and cause intestinal diseases, and live on these fats for half a year after stopping eating. Turtles that are too thin or have poor feeding conditions or are too small will be raised by heating in winter. When the temperature is adjusted to 28 degrees, the tortoise will eat normally. If they don't hibernate by heating, they are likely to die because they can't keep up with the temperature rise. ?

The real hibernating method is to spread thick wet sand in the container and cover it with newspaper balls. The tortoise will sleep in the sand by itself and replenish water once a week to keep the sand and newspapers moist. Hibernation is a test for raising turtles at home. First of all, you should make sure that your baby is healthy and free from diseases. Tortoise with poor constitution must not hibernate. Little turtle, little turtle, my advice is not to hibernate, winter is very sad! You can prepare some sand for the hibernating turtle, but if it can't climb in, don't bury it by force. Soft-shelled turtles that don't hibernate in the sand can be placed in shallow water and covered with a layer of wet cotton yarn to keep them moist, which also has a certain heat preservation effect. Turtles who hibernate in the sand should make sure that the sand is clean and pollution-free. Keep the sand moist during the hibernation of turtles. The tortoise may wake up during hibernation, so make sure it doesn't climb where you can't find it after waking up. In addition, turtles who wake up from hibernation must not be fed.

reference data

How to judge whether the tortoise hibernates or dies? Zhihu [citation time 2017-12-19]