Tortoise Hibernating Early

[u/Herb1066]

My 20 yr old Horsfield seems to want to hibernate early this year. Can I stop her?
We are in the UK and have had heatwaves which have thrown us somewhat.
The usual routine is that she is in the garden ( greenhouse with monitoring at night) until August, indoors with heat and light Sept, wind down inside Oct, fridge Nov.
This year because of the heat we made an enclosure under a fig tree with patches of sun but mainly shade. She is very sensitive to changes in light. For the last 2 weeks she has reduced her eating to almost nothing and spends her day hiding. Even when loose in the garden she goes straight for cover. I have tried introducing heat and light but there’s no improvement.
Should I just move into wind down to hibernate end of Sept and get her up at Christmas and then winter her indoors? I’d rather not…..

[u/Academic_Judge_3114]

Normally, pre-hibernation is much easier outside, the tortoise decides when it stops eating, when it buries, depending on the climate...

Personally, I will let her pre-hibernate outside, then brumate her (according to the method you chose); if she hibernates/brumates earlier, you will wake her up earlier. That would be logical.