Hiding in Cold, Dark, Places

I just adopted a new beardie from a co-worker of mine (who cared for her very poorly), and she has been recovering and thriving in her new environment. I take her out of the enclosure every day, which she seems to love. Only, she does a very odd thing that I have yet to figure out.

When she is allowed to roam freely on the ground, she has a tendency to run very fast across the room, then almost immediately find a very dark and cold place to hide in, and sometimes will just fall asleep there. This happens even in mid-day, when she is very active. The apartment is usually around 60 degrees, but the floor is a little colder and she surprisingly picks some of the cooler, draftier spots for hiding.

I find this strange, since I would expect her to seek out warmer, sunlit spots. I know she has experienced some trauma in the past, but she is very comfortable with me at this point and it is not a fearful reaction. It's more like she just loves finding those spots, but I get concerned that she'll get too cold there, so I have to fish her out and bring her back to her basking spot. Any thoughts? It seems like counter-intuitive behavior.

Thanks!

Hello EbensDragons,

This sounds very much like what my little boy Guac will do, though I don't have a good reason for it. Guac doesn't immediately B-line for a spot to sleep though, he tends to wander around, lick the floor a couple times, climb up my bed, climb off my bed, watch me watch him, lick the wall, AND THEN find a nice cool place to hide and fall asleep.

If I had to guess, I'd say that the places she's finding are places she feels secure that just happen to be cool. Maybe try to put out some hiding spots that are a bit warmer? When I leave hides out for Guacamole, he'll usually use those instead of random/cold spots.

Hope this helps, and please let me know what happens!
-Ellen

I noticed my guys do the same thing. They will run around a bit and when they get cold they shut down and curl up for a nap in a cool and secure place. Dundee is doing this in my signature photo - hiding under the TV shelf in a dark spot. I've found that putting up portable basking lights around the house helps and they learn to just return to them to warm back up. A regular basking light is fine if you set up one. I have two MegaRay 100w MVBs so my guy can get some UVB if he wants and I have one regular basking light for him to warm up without UVB. He tends to move between them at different times of the day so I think offering the variety is good.