Deep sleep

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Reptilelady

Sub-Adult Member
Hello everyone,
I let my beardie do what he wants so he has been sleeping deeply for these last 2 days. I stay at home so I am able to check up on him, I turned off the UVB but since he is awake today, I turned it back on. I offered a couple dubias he just looks at them so I tried offering different feeders like BSFL's and he is not interested either. I also used a dropper and filled with water in case he was thirsty and he didn't seem to want that either.
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Should I just leave him be?
 

VenusAndSaturn

Sub-Adult Member
His eyes look fine to me, and he's most likely just about to burmate so dont worry if he refuses to eat or do much. As long as he's healthy and not loosing too much weight he should be fine.
Personally i like leaving the lights on even when they burmate or act like it because half the time saturn will come out for a few days, bask and then go back to sleep or sometimes will stay up for a week before sleeping for a week.
 

EllenD

Gray-bearded Member
So he's finally actually sleeping? Well, I was wrong then, it probably is a very early brumation. It's odd, but it happens. How old is he now? Here's an example of how this can happen. He really held out on going to sleep though, that little buggar...

Yeah, leave his lights on as normally, as far as I know that's what most people do and recommend doing, as long as he has a hide or a cave to get in/under.
 

Reptilelady

Sub-Adult Member
Original Poster
Yeah he is, he was in his favorite cave sleeping and never once saw him awake like today to come out so I figured, why keep the lights on but I'll just leave them on and alone though. Keep everything the same I guess. I never turn off any heat bulbs though since they do need heat and digestion. I was also reading that some beardie may never come out of brumation :shock: I hope he is not one of them. My goodness, I will never forgive myself thinking I did something wrong.
 

Reptilelady

Sub-Adult Member
Original Poster
Oh, and btw EllenD, I am taking your advice leaving the Reptisun 10.0 T5HO bulb to try for a month. I doubt the UVB lights have anything to do with it because he was doing this beginning of October but not actually sleep until a few days ago.
 

EllenD

Gray-bearded Member
I don't think the UVB lights have anything to do with the "brumation" either, I think it's a good idea to at least try that for a month, as we discussed. It may end up not being the correct thing for him, who knows, but that's my best advice as to what to do, you know my feelings on the other option...

As far as I have ever been told by other experienced Dragon owners and breeders, and actually have seen on YouTube in many videos put up by very experienced and well-known breeders that you would recognize by name, they always leave both the basking light and the UVB tubes on for the same photoperiod as they do every day, nothing is changed at all. There are actually several YouTube videos from a particular breeder that used to be pretty huge, who has a huge Beardie room in his home with several dozen custom enclosures (at one point he probably had between 50-70 adult breeders in his home). He has hundreds of videos posted on YouTube, well, he and his sister, who is another huge breeder, and I've seen probably 20+ of his videos where he's going through his room giving an "Update" video, and he points out several dragons that are "trying to brumate" or "just starting to brumate", and he points out how he leaves their lights on and doesn't change a thing when they brumate, except he puts a hide or a cave in the tanks for them. I'll message you this breeder's name and a link to his YouTube page, I should have thought of this long ago for you, lol, I learned a lot from this particular long-time breeder and his sister throughout the past 15 years of owning dragons, there are certain things that I don't agree with that he does, like housing his adult females together, like 5-10 together in one massive enclosure, but he's always responsible in how he presents things like this. For example, he always addresses the fact that you should never house a male and a female together, or a male and a male, and if you do try to house multiple females together and you see any sign of aggression or dominance, or any little bit of an issue, the second you see this you absolutely must separate them. Just one example, but he's an extremely knowledgeable and responsible breeder, or he was, he isn't really breeding anymore, but his sister is a pretty successful dragon breeder as well.

Anyway, not only this guy but many others I've watched educational videos of, read online articles written by them, etc. all leave their lights on and do not change a thing while they brumate, even if it's a full-on heavy brumation that lasts for months. They typically wake them up once a week, give them a warm bath and make sure that they drink fluids (NO FOOD), and then put them back in their tanks and let them continue. But the lights always stay on. Which makes sense, because #1) They need the heat, obviously, and #2) If a dragon were to brumate for a month, 2 months, 3 months, etc. and they got no UVB/UVA light at all for that time period, obviously that's going to cause a ton of issues and start deficiencies.
 

Reptilelady

Sub-Adult Member
Original Poster
Ok thanks for the info. I switched back to everything now I just thought if he is hiding / won’t be benefiting from the UVB but your right in the wild there is always sun even if it’s rain, cloudy overcast, etc whatever the case may be. I just hope he comes out of this “always hiding in cave” at some point he does need to bask and eat so after his brumation thing is up or dealt with be nice to actually see him out basking on a branch/log. Oh and also probably me holding him / changing his enclosure because I thought there was an issue when really he was just trying to relax and get ready for winter prolonged him so it might take a month or two ? ahh oh well. I tried to dig as much info on this brumation stuff even in the bearded dragon manual books.
 

Reptilelady

Sub-Adult Member
Original Poster
Been logging his weight as well. They seem to be around same weight 342g taken on the 2/4th. Since he is awake today I’ll measure and see what it is.
 

Reptilelady

Sub-Adult Member
Original Poster
After I was done getting his weight, I put him back and this is what happens :lol:
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He did this with the crickets on top of his head now the dubias. Ahhhh.... and BSFl's.
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How he is right now. He isn't in his cave surprisingly I thought for sure he would go in after I put him back in his enclosure.
 

EllenD

Gray-bearded Member
His weight is excellent, so that's good...he just looks tired, not necessarily unhealthy, just really tired, which if he's going in and out of a partial brumation is understandable...

I'd try to get AHBD to comment here, he has a lot of experience with both partial and full brumation. I have absolutely no experience with it all, as even my male who lived to be almost 13 never even attempted to do anything that looked like any kind of brumation....and I certainly hope to God that none of my current 3 every do either, I don't need this crap on top of their other daily, normal crap! LOL... :banghead:
 

Reptilelady

Sub-Adult Member
Original Poster
Right!? I am just glad he is not stuck in that cave like all day like my leopard gecko is :lol:

@AHBD where you at? Need your advice on this brumation stuff. It just worries the heck out of me.
He is moving around just not very much at all. In fact, I put like two dubias in the food bowl and he might have eaten one unless one of them got out. Only see one of them left.
 
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