Look after your pet tortoise!

COLD COMFORT
Hibernating Pet Tortoise Can Be Kept In Fridge For Winter, Experts Say
National Post
February 7, 2008
Page A3

Warm winters may be rousing hibernating pet tortoises early and endangering their lives but there is a solution - keep them in the fridge for the winter. "It is an ideal method and a proven way of being safe in a changing climate," says Joy Bloor, owner of one of Britain's largest sanctuaries, the Tortoise Garden in Cornwall. Tortoises hibernate through the winter, but need to keep their body termperature between 3C and 5C.

If it rises above that they wake up, begin digesting food and will die if the termperature falls again. Experts recommend using a new fridge with a reliable thermostat and without a freezer compartment as fridges containing integral freezers can malfunction, freezing the whole unit - and any tortoises. "If you open the door every day they should get enough air," Ms. Bloor says. "But you shouldn't go away on holiday and leave them."