At the start of September we rescued a 6 or 7 year old female. Have been working to get her healthy again and have managed to get her weight up from 350g to 380g. She's blind on one side, so gets very frustrated eating bugs and missing them, so it's slow going.
The past week she's turned down all bugs and will only eat greens, squash and apple if I literally poke her in the face with them. She's sleeping more and has made a new bed in the top corner at the cool end of her tank. I'm recognising the signs of brumation, our previous lizard was a haphazard brumater and did week long naps and woke for a couple of days on and off from November to February.
My question is - will she be OK to brumate while still not in peak condition? I don't know her habits, whether she'll conk out completely if I don't wake her and put her under the basking lamp, like I have been this week. I'm not super happy with the idea of her not eating for a loooong time.
Do I just let her sleep? Or should I keep waking her every afternoon and putting her in the hot spot and poking her with vegetables?
(edited to say also, she's not finished the shed she started when we got her, still has a patchy head, belly and legs. Is that gonna interfere at all, or cause her problems if she goes under ?)
The past week she's turned down all bugs and will only eat greens, squash and apple if I literally poke her in the face with them. She's sleeping more and has made a new bed in the top corner at the cool end of her tank. I'm recognising the signs of brumation, our previous lizard was a haphazard brumater and did week long naps and woke for a couple of days on and off from November to February.
My question is - will she be OK to brumate while still not in peak condition? I don't know her habits, whether she'll conk out completely if I don't wake her and put her under the basking lamp, like I have been this week. I'm not super happy with the idea of her not eating for a loooong time.
Do I just let her sleep? Or should I keep waking her every afternoon and putting her in the hot spot and poking her with vegetables?
(edited to say also, she's not finished the shed she started when we got her, still has a patchy head, belly and legs. Is that gonna interfere at all, or cause her problems if she goes under ?)