I recently obtained two red-eared slider babies from a surf shop in Florida in August. I brought them back to my home in St. Louis, MO. For the last month or so they have been very inactive and won't eat. :( They are in my office which is cold and their tank is right by the window. I think that they are hibernating. I have read that it is not good to hibernate turtles if you do not intend on breeding them, which I don't. They are also babies and I am very concerned for their health. Should I let them continue to hibernate? Should I bring them out of Hibernation? How? Please let me know my babies and I are counting on some good advice.

many babies are too small to hibernate. i wouldnt hibernate them at all. do they have their own lights, not just the sun from the window? what is the water and basking temps? they shouldnt be near a window because one it can overheat a small amount of water pretty quickly, but more importantly here is that photoperiod (length of time of light per day) can trigger hibernation as well as temp. since the days are getting shorter and they know that because they are next to the window, that may be triggering them to hibernate. it is probably from the low temps as well, but the shorter daytimes arent helping either.

how big is the tank? you could even put a heater in the water to keep that warm. are you using a heat bulb or just a flouresent bulb?

They will certainly be inactive if it's cold (below 70 degrees F will be slow, below 60 degrees F, they won't do anything really) and/or they don't get enough light. They should get at least 12 hours a day of sunlight. I don't know where you live but here, we're only getting <10 hours a day now. You should set them up in a tank with proper heat and lighting. In this case, I don't think it's necessary to do it gradually as they need to snap out of it as it were; it being the hibernation. But you don't want to start them with really warm water but instead maybe 70 degrees and then a few days later, up to 75 or so. It would help if you could measure their current temperature. Transitions are more important if you're going from warm to cold water. If you haven't already, read over my page at http://www.fishpondinfo.com/hatchling.htm for information on heating, lighting, feeding, etc.

she said she was in St Loius, MO.

i think day light may be different in central us. i think its a bit longer, not sure.

its longer than yours, but her latitude isnt much lower than mine, but in any way as long as the days are getting shorter in general it can trigger them to hibernate.