How to Prevent Soft-Shelled Turtle Deaths During Hibernation
The soft-shelled turtle is a poikilothermic animal, and changes in the external environmental temperature directly affect its feeding and activity. When the water temperature is below 20°C, its feeding and activity gradually decrease; at 15°C it stops eating; and at 12°C it burrows into the mud to hibernate, thereby reducing its own consumption and sustaining life. Soft-shelled turtles that have not entered a greenhouse to overwinter sometimes die during hibernation.
Causes of death
1. When the soft-shelled turtle begins hibernating, the water temperature is too low and it suffers cold damage.
2. There is too much organic matter at the bottom of the pond, producing harmful gases such as hydrogen sulfide and methane.
3. Too little bait was fed before winter, so the soft-shelled turtle's body has an excessive lack of stored nutrients and calories.
4. The soft-shelled turtle enters hibernation after being injured.
Preventive measures
1. During the egg-laying period and before hibernation, feed fresh, high-nutrition, high-quality feed, and appropriately increase the feeding amount.
2. The pond water should be deepened before hibernation; generally the water depth needs to reach about 1.5 m.
3. During hibernation, people and livestock should not frequently walk around the pond edge, so as to avoid startling the soft-shelled turtles from outside and affecting normal hibernation.
4. If there is too much decaying organic matter at the bottom of the pond, the pond should be cleared and the water changed before the soft-shelled turtles hibernate.
5. Injured soft-shelled turtles should be sold promptly and not kept to overwinter.
6. For soft-shelled turtles transported in winter, because some have already lost the ability to enter water, they should first be placed in a sunny, warm spot to bask in the sun, and once they recover their ability to move, put them into the pond; for the few that still cannot burrow into the mud on their own after the above method is used, they can be gently pressed into the mud and sand by hand.