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Tortoises are land turtles, and along with turtles they belong to the reptile family Testudinidae, and like Turtles, Tortoises protect themselves from predators by their shell. They tend to be quite reclusive animals who are active in the day and sleep at night, though you may find that some are active during dawn and dusk and then sleep during the other periods of the day and night.
When tortoises give birth they dig nesting burrows in which the lay their eggs, this is normally during the night, after laying her eggs (which can be any number between 1 to 30) the female tortoise will leave her eggs and they will take between 60 to 120 to warm up in order to hatch. The size if the egg really depends on the size their mother, the baby will hatch out using its egg tooth, it will then dig out of the nest and start life on its own. For the first 7 days the live off a built in egg sac, after these initial days they can then start to eat normally. Tortoises can live for years and years; it's not unusual for pet tortoises to be passed down through the family, as they can live longer than their owners.
When it comes to hibernation, it is recommended that owners of tortoises should keep their tortoises awake during the winter up until around the age of three. After this as long as they are in good health and weight tortoises can be allowed to hibernate through the winter months and be completely fine. It is important to have a heated vivarium in your tortoise's cage as when they wake the weather won't be stable for them, as their natural habitat is much warmer than England. It is also important to use a heat due to the fact that you can extend their summer, as ours finishes so early with temperatures dropping in October/September, you will notice your tortoise will stop eating, this is way too early. However in September you should start to reduce the temperature, up until your tortoise has an empty stomach ready for hibernation.
During hibernation you should keep their body around 3 to 7 degrees, this will prevent them from losing any weight. Tortoises tend to wake around March, in the spring when the weather becomes mild. During this time you should move your tortoise's hibernation box somewhere warmer, and after a few days you will notice them walking around, during this time you should get their heater on to around 22-24oC. After these few days you should bath them, to re-hydrate them and then put them back into their heated cage, you should bath them every day for 10 days after this and heighten the temperature of their heater until you reach 26-28oC.
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