How to Take Care of a Hibernating Turtle (Beginners Guide)

A few years ago my turtles grew too big for their tank, so I decided to move them in a backyard pond that I built for them. But this meant that I will be facing a new challenge, hibernation. So I spend quite a few hours researching everything that I could find about turtle hibernation, and how to help your turtle during this time.

Now that I and my turtles have gone through quite a few winters hibernating, I decided to write this guide containing everything that I learned while researching, and from my own personal experience, to help everybody in need.

How to Help Your Pet Turtle Hibernate

It’s extremely easy to help a hibernating pet turtle. There are only two things that you have to do.

The first one is to make sure that your turtle has a safe spot to hibernate. The second thing that you have to do is to make sure that your turtle is safe while hibernating.

In the wild turtles spend a lot of time searching for a good spot, but your turtle doesn’t have that many spots to choose from since it will be limited to your yard. So it’s up to you to make sure that you create the perfect spot.

How to Create a Good Place for a Turtle to Hibernate

When turtles look for a place to hibernate they are interested in two things, protection from the cold weather and protection from predators.

The most common places turtles choose to hibernate are:

• At the bottom of a lake
• Underground
• In a pile of leaves
• In a tree hollow
• In a small cave

So let’s take a look at how you can create a hibernation spot that is similar to the ones wild turtles use.

A Hole in the Ground

This is one of the simplest and common methods.

One of the most common places turtles hibernate in the wild is underground. Turtles simply dig a hole in the ground, get inside of it, and then cover themselves with mud.

The good part about this method is that you don’t have to dig any holes. You can simply let your turtle dig the hole the way it needs.

Overall I would say that this is a very simple and efficient method. You just have to look after your turtle while it digs, so you know where your turtle is. And there is nothing that you have to do during the winter to ensure its safety.

Just make sure that you don’t add any more soil to your turtle. If you add too much soil, your turtle might not be able to get out.

A Pile of Leaves

One of the simplest things that you can do is to give them a lot of dry leaves. In the wild, a lot of turtles cover themself in leaves when they hibernate. Leaves will protect turtles from the cold weather and the wind, during the winter.

Just make sure that the leaves are dry, if you use green leaves they will create mold, and this can lead to health problems for your turtle.

One great thing that I discovered is that you can also use straws with the leaves. This will offer better insulation and will keep the leaves together.

This is an overall OK method, but it doesn’t offer as much protection as the rest.  So I would advise you to use another method, instead of this one.

A Small Cave

Many species have used caves for centuries to survive the winter, so surely they can help your turtles as well.

You can make a small cave by taking a few rocks and placing them with care. Just be sure that you leave enough space for the turtle to be able to enter. And make sure that the cave won’t collapse over the turtle. Even if it won’t hit the turtle too hard, spending the entire winter with a boulder on your back can’t be too pleasant.

This method will offer a great deal of protection, but if you don’t build the cave carefully it might hurt your turtle. If you have the right materials to build it, I say go for it. But if you are not sure the cave will last, you might want to look at other methods.

A box

This is not the most natural way but it’s definitely effective.

You will need:

• Styrofoam box or a simple box
• Nails
• String
• Dry leaves
• Glue

You can use any type of box that you want, but a styrofoam one will offer a lot more protection for your turtle.

The first thing that you want to do is to make the box look more natural. To do this you should glue dry leaves on the inside, as well as the outside. Doing this will make the turtle feel a lot more comfortable using it. You don’t necessarily have to use dry leaves, you can use anything that you want, just be careful with green leaves, because they can create mold.

After that, cut a hole in the side so your turtle can enter the box.

The next thing that you want to do is to make the box stay in one place. Here you can use the nails and the string to do so. One way you can use this is to place the nails on both sides of the box and then tie the box down using the string.

After your turtle starts hibernating make sure to cover the entrance with some cloth, cardboard, or anything that your turtle will be able to move when it wakes up.

This method is very efficient and very safe. If you have the materials at your disposal there is no reason not to choose this method.

Be careful with ponds

Most aquatic turtles will choose to hibernate at the bottom of a lake. But letting your turtle hibernate in a backyard pond is very different from that.

Lakes are very deep, so they never freeze completely. The only place of a lake that freezes is the surface. The bottom, where turtles are hibernating, won’t freeze.

On the other hand, ponds are not that deep, and if the water in the pond freezes completely, so will your turtle, and there is no coming back after that.

If you want to let your turtles hibernate in a pond, you have to make sure that the water is deep enough so it doesn’t completely freeze.

If you don’t think that your pond is deep enough then it’s better to encourage your turtles to hibernate outside of the water. You can simply do this by providing the right conditions for them just outside of the pond. They are smart when it comes to survival and they will choose the right option.

If your pond is deep enough and you are sure that it won’t freeze completely, you still have work to do. During the winter you will have to occasionally go to the pond and create a hole in it. The hole has to be deep enough to reach the water underneath. This hole will allow oxygen to enter the water.

Even if turtles are able to get oxygen underwater, they are not able to do so if the oxygen from the water is depleted. So maintaining this hole is vital for the turtle.

Combining Those Methods

You can always try a combination of those methods. I actually encourage you to do so. You don’t have to limit yourself and your turtles to just one method.

So you can let your turtle dig a hole in the ground and then add some extra leaves for protection. Or place some leaves inside a box or a cave.

How to Care for Your Turtle While It Hibernates

Now that your turtle is hibernating you have to make sure that nothing bad happens.

Fortunately, this doesn’t require you to do too much. You just have to check every few days if your turtle is alright. Since your turtle is sleeping it can be hard to tell if anything happened. But as long as your turtle is not covered in snow or ice, then it’s most likely ok.

One final thing that you should do is to put a small fence around the area where your turtle is. This way you will know exactly where your turtle is, and when it wakes up you won’t have to search all over for it.

Now that we covered the care guide, I think it’s a good idea to also take a look at how the hibernation process works. This way you will get a better understanding of your turtle’s needs during this important part of its life.

Hibernation

Hibernation is a state in which animals enter during periods of cold weather. When they are in this state they have a reduced metabolic rate. That means that they use very little energy, don’t need to eat or drink, and are basically sleeping the whole time.

Animals hibernate during the winter because the cold weather doesn’t allow vegetation to grow, and makes a lot of the animals or insects that they would normally eat, less active. So it’s basically a way for them to take a break until things go back to normal.

When the weather starts to get cold the metabolism of a turtle will automatically start to slow down. And as a result, their hearts will start to slow down, along with all other processes that happen in their bodies.

As a result of this slow down, they will need considerably less oxygen, no food, and no water, for extended periods of time, sometimes lasting up to 5 or 6 months.

During hibernation, aquatic turtles also gain a new ability, the ability to breathe underwater. They are able to do so thanks to their cloaca.

The cloaca is the posterior orifice that serves as the only opening for the digestive, reproductive and urinary tract.

The main way a turtle breaths it’s through its nose, all turtles have two small holes on their face that act as any normal nose would, when it comes to breathing, and of course they have two lungs where the air is transported. Until now there is nothing different in the way a turtle is breathing than the way you and I are breathing, they inhale air into their lungs and then they exhale it, but the way things work on the inside is completely different.

When you inhale air, you can observe that your chest becomes smaller and when you exhale it becomes bigger, this happens because you have flexible ribs, turtles on the other hand have a shell that is not flexible at all. Since turtles don’t have this flexibility they have no use for the lung and muscle setup that we and most mammals have. Instead, turtles have muscles that pull the body outwards, towards the openings of the shell, to allow it to inhale, and more muscles to squish the turtle’s guts against its lungs to make it exhale.

The cloaca works in a similar way to the lungs, when the turtle is inside the water the cloaca will act like a pump that will suck water inside and after it gathers all the oxygen from it, it will expel the water out, and then it will start over. Due to the way things are arranged on the inside of the turtle this process is less exhausting than normal breathing.

Under normal circumstances, turtles wouldn’t be able to rely just on the cloaca to stay underwater for long periods of time, but when they are hibernating the amount of oxygen that the cloaca can produce is enough for them to spend months underwater.

Common Questions

Do turtles have to hibernate? No, turtles hibernate only out of necessity. Hibernation serves no other purpose aside from keeping them alive during the winter. If there were no winter turtles wouldn’t have to hibernate at all.

How long do turtles hibernate? It all depends on the weather. If the bad weather lasts only for 3 months, then turtles will only hibernate for 3 months. If the bad weather lasts for 6 months, turtles will hibernate for 6 months.

Do turtles feel cold? Yes, turtles can feel cold. Turtles are cold-blooded, meaning that they don’t generate their own body heat, and they rely on environmental heat to maintain their body temperature. And they have to be able to feel cold and heat to be able to choose a good spot to bask.

Final Thoughts

So, in order to take care of your turtle while it’s hibernating, you just have to provide a good spot and make sure that snow and ice don’t reach your turtle during the winter.

I hope this article answered all of your questions, but if you still have some questions left, or if you need any kind of help with your turtle, you can leave a comment in the comment section and I will answer you as soon as possible.

Hello,

If you enjoy the content that we create, please consider saying a "Thank You!" by leaving a tip.

Every little bit can help us tremendously in continuing to create quality content that helps turtle and tortoise owners around the world.

We really appreciate the kindness and support that you show us!