kingofnobbys
BD.org Sicko
I think Peppa and Fluffy have decided to brumate in the last few weeks.
I hardly see Fluffy moving about most days lately , apart from moving about to thermoregulate, visit her food dish to see what's on offer (every few days) and to drink , bath. She has 3 fav stops where she naps (one of them in the open where she can be seen).
Peppa has lost interest in her greens and crickets , and I no longer have any silkworms on the go (as off a few weeks ago when Peppa ate her last silkworm).
She's been more regular since the silkworms disappeared, poos every 2 to 4 days.
I cut back the photoperiod by 1 hr a couple weeks ago. With the end of DST I'll cut back by another hour or maybe even 1 hour each end..
I have found if I hand feed her more than 3 crickets, she's upchucking some. And she's been very sleepy for the last couple of weeks.
So I'm considering cutting Peppa's feeding to 2 or 3 per week if she's interested. And still getting her out for snuggles and if she opens her mouth (too hot) giving her a drink by dripping water in opened mouth. She's been taking water a lot this way this week , was very thirsty yesterday before her big poo (nice well formed poo, soft but not sloppy , and nice white urate too.)
Pooed on the 5th, 7th, 8th, 9th <== these 4 cleared out the last of the digested silkworms , 13th, 15th and yesterday. So she's not impacted.
My BTs are still wide awake and active and showing plenty of interest in their food.
So I guess - my question is how do you know your dragon is in brumation ?
(none of my dragons or skinks have done this in the past) and what changes should I make to accommodate for this if Peppa is in brumation other than
> shorter photoperiod
> less frequent feeding ( cut back to weekly maybe ? )
> providing water (dripped on lips , snout) ?
I think the very unusually wet , cloudy , stormy weather here this autumn ( huge rain events in Queenslands , late season Coral Sea TC last month , and 2 powerful big category 4 TCs in the Gulf and off the Pilbara coast (right now) , and the extra humidity around and reduced brightness of light through windows might be what's send Fluffy and Peppa and most the wild skinks into slowdown mode..
Obviously it's not wise let an impacted or otherwise sick dragon brumate , or to have a dragon go down with a stomach full of food (which is going to rot).
Warning signs of look out for ?
(ie no thermorelating activity , BBing , weightloss , URIs , others ?? etc).
She only took 6 smallish medium sized crickets today (under sufferance), spat out the 7th so I took the hint.
She went back into her tank on the ground in her cool zone after cooling off on the chair next to me for 90mins, was there for 90mins with her head up in the air and has crawled onto her heatslab now and is asleep infront of her hubbahut (so I guess she wanted some warmth).
So still actively thermoregulating.
BTW the blocked right nostril finally opened up , a flap of skin came off , was some clear mucus trapped under this which dried up and is no longer there, and any honey placed on the nostril is sucked into it pretty quick. So only applying a drop of honey to it each day now, and stopped the daily F10 nasal flushing last week.
Unless she shows interest in eating , I'll hold off feeding her. What do you guys do when you have a brumating or semibrumating dragon with feeding schedules ?
once a week ? 2x per week ? small feeds or normal sized feeds ?
I hardly see Fluffy moving about most days lately , apart from moving about to thermoregulate, visit her food dish to see what's on offer (every few days) and to drink , bath. She has 3 fav stops where she naps (one of them in the open where she can be seen).
Peppa has lost interest in her greens and crickets , and I no longer have any silkworms on the go (as off a few weeks ago when Peppa ate her last silkworm).
She's been more regular since the silkworms disappeared, poos every 2 to 4 days.
I cut back the photoperiod by 1 hr a couple weeks ago. With the end of DST I'll cut back by another hour or maybe even 1 hour each end..
I have found if I hand feed her more than 3 crickets, she's upchucking some. And she's been very sleepy for the last couple of weeks.
So I'm considering cutting Peppa's feeding to 2 or 3 per week if she's interested. And still getting her out for snuggles and if she opens her mouth (too hot) giving her a drink by dripping water in opened mouth. She's been taking water a lot this way this week , was very thirsty yesterday before her big poo (nice well formed poo, soft but not sloppy , and nice white urate too.)
Pooed on the 5th, 7th, 8th, 9th <== these 4 cleared out the last of the digested silkworms , 13th, 15th and yesterday. So she's not impacted.
My BTs are still wide awake and active and showing plenty of interest in their food.
So I guess - my question is how do you know your dragon is in brumation ?
(none of my dragons or skinks have done this in the past) and what changes should I make to accommodate for this if Peppa is in brumation other than
> shorter photoperiod
> less frequent feeding ( cut back to weekly maybe ? )
> providing water (dripped on lips , snout) ?
I think the very unusually wet , cloudy , stormy weather here this autumn ( huge rain events in Queenslands , late season Coral Sea TC last month , and 2 powerful big category 4 TCs in the Gulf and off the Pilbara coast (right now) , and the extra humidity around and reduced brightness of light through windows might be what's send Fluffy and Peppa and most the wild skinks into slowdown mode..
Obviously it's not wise let an impacted or otherwise sick dragon brumate , or to have a dragon go down with a stomach full of food (which is going to rot).
Warning signs of look out for ?
(ie no thermorelating activity , BBing , weightloss , URIs , others ?? etc).
She only took 6 smallish medium sized crickets today (under sufferance), spat out the 7th so I took the hint.
She went back into her tank on the ground in her cool zone after cooling off on the chair next to me for 90mins, was there for 90mins with her head up in the air and has crawled onto her heatslab now and is asleep infront of her hubbahut (so I guess she wanted some warmth).
So still actively thermoregulating.
BTW the blocked right nostril finally opened up , a flap of skin came off , was some clear mucus trapped under this which dried up and is no longer there, and any honey placed on the nostril is sucked into it pretty quick. So only applying a drop of honey to it each day now, and stopped the daily F10 nasal flushing last week.
Unless she shows interest in eating , I'll hold off feeding her. What do you guys do when you have a brumating or semibrumating dragon with feeding schedules ?
once a week ? 2x per week ? small feeds or normal sized feeds ?