Other Turtle Discussion :: Hibernation Of My Turtles

[Diamondbacks4Life]

I just thought i would update on my turtle collection.

First lets say this is the weirdest winter ever. I feel like I dont own any turtles at all and I actually really miss them but not the tank cleanings and no lightbulbs just so simple. This is the first ive ever tried hibernating turtles and at first I was worried about it but its been idk how long actually and they all seem do be doing good.

Its actually way easier then I thought it would be to hibernate the turtles. I just took the 100gallon stock tank and filled it about 6inches of water and put in a small underwater filter to keep slow water movment and put all the turtles in it. The stock tank then just sits in an outside garage. They dont take the full blast of the winter, temps staying 40s in the garage. The stock tank is crowded on the bottom though of turtles but they arent moving at all. When temps get in the 50s you see slight movment but thats it and water looking perfectly clean too. So im feeling pretty good right now. I check on them about every two weeks. So hopefully come spring all the turtles will be on set with nature and will breed.

[steve]

Those are all DBT's?

[Diamondbacks4Life]

Those are all DBT's?

Na there is 1 res, 1 musk, 3 westerns P. and 4 w/e painted thrown in the mix XD

[steve]

Whoa, quite a crew. Keep us updated

[Diamondbacks4Life]

Wow its been awhile. Since my first post was the last time i checked on my the turtles. Well today I finally went down to see them again. Something interesting I noticed. The res is always the most active one, he is always is moving around. Also the male dbt moved otherwise the rest are knocked out in a deep sleep.

So here two pics. The water still looks awesome. Same waater been in there for months now.

[steve]

So no temp monitoring? I don't think I can go a day without checking my bunch

[Diamondbacks4Life]

So no temp monitoring? I don't think I can go a day without checking my bunch

Nope, but i did check the water temp once at the beinging and it was in the low 40s matching the garage temp but I know the water didnt warm up with the garage with the long string of days in the single digits. The water temp probably was in the 30s it was much colder then the garage temp.

[steve]

Do the ones moving have their eyes open? Did you weigh them prior? Sorry for all the questions

[Diamondbacks4Life]

Yep the ones that move have their eyes open as for weighing. Nope i figured this is an all or nothing thing. Either this goes horriably wrong or it goes right plus im not checking on them really, this is only the 3rd time I think. I did weigh one but i dont even know what happen to the paper, I lifted the one dbt up and she feels the same as she always does. I know her feel when she has lost weight.

[SINI5T3R]

I hibernated my turtles this year and they would just chill at the bottom. My pond I had them in tho got a leak so I had to bring them out early and put them in a tank again. they seem to be doing good tho. its really not that hard to hibe them, just let nature take its place.

[SINI5T3R]

also on the far left in the pic with all the turtles, is that a snapper?

[Diamondbacks4Life]

also on the far left in the pic with all the turtles, is that a snapper?

Haha you will never see me own one of those. That would be a very large diamonback. So far she is the biggest diamondback I have and have ever seen actually in rl.

[SINI5T3R]

Ohh ok I see now that I look at the others shells and then look at that ones. It just looks like a snapper sorta lol. How come you would never own one? they are pretty cool turtles..just scary lol

[Diamondbacks4Life]

Ohh ok I see now that I look at the others shells and then look at that ones. It just looks like a snapper sorta lol. How come you would never own one? they are pretty cool turtles..just scary lol

They get huge, they have no color to them. Their not very neat in my opinion. I like my diamondbacks for their white skin and patterns. Each seem unigue in it own way. Just look at the photo, 5 diamondbacks in the photo and each one is different. The 2 dark westerns next to each other you cannot tell the difference at all.

[SINI5T3R]

yeah they do look different. I had two large snappers and they looked different you could tell which one was which and dont the females just get huge? males get pretty big for a aquatic turtle too but i dont think they get nearly as large as the females? and there are Snapper morphs too