Brumation Too Long?

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My beardie, Mimsy, went into brumation in April, I forgot to mark down the exact day. She just turned 2 back in June, and this is the third time she's brumated now. The first was before she was a year old, and she has been out for at least a few months each time. She's been out for over 6 months now, I'm starting to get worried. I started to check on her every few days about 4 months in to make sure she's still okay. She doesn't seem to have lost much (if any) weight, and she'll reposition herself every few weeks. Since I live in Minnesota I have one of her heat lamps on to keep it a reasonable, but lower, temperature in there, but the lights are off.
Like I said before, she's usually out for a while, but it's never been this long before. Should I be concerned? Thanks in advance for any help.
 

KarrieRee

BD.org Sicko
Beardie name(s)
Hiccup he is 6 and Blaze is 4
Yes please get her out and weigh her on a kitchen food scale in grams -- offer her water -- please tell us what brand and bulb your using for a UVB --- NO coils ----- also basking temps how are you taking them and what are they
Karrie
 

Squiggydoo

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Original Poster
The hottest part of the basking spot is 102F and her warm side is about 80F right now. The cool side she's sleeping on is sitting at 68-70F. Usually her warm end is 90ishF and the cool side stays in the upper 70s at the coolest. Basking spot stays the same temp. I use a temp gun to take them and a reptisun 10.0 long bulb for her UVB and ceramic heat bulbs for the heat. When she's not brumating, the UVB stays on for 14 hours and the heat all the time so it stays warm enough in there for her. She's my only reptile right now and I only feed her trusted dubia roaches so there's no risk of parasites.

I'm not taking her out and disturbing her just to weigh her. I haven't weighed her in the past and I don't plan to unless she becomes ill. Like I said earlier, she doesn't look visually any different than the day she started, which indicates little to no weight loss. The fat pads on her head look fine, her belly is not sunken in, and the base of her tail looks thick and healthy. She visually looks like she is a healthy weight. Her skin doesn't seem to indicate any dehydration. It is springy and smooth. I bathed her within a week of her starting and she hasn't been accepting water while brumating. I try to disturb her as minimally as possible. There is no indication that anything is wrong with her other than that she has been sleeping for 6 months.
 

CooperDragon

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Some of them sleep longer than others. I agree that it's a good idea to record her weight on days she is shifting around and not quite as out of it and offer her some water if she wants it, but if her fat pads look good and she hasn't visibly lost much weight she's probably OK. It's too bad she missed the entire summer. I'd be inclined to just let her be, but if she doesn't show signs of waking up over the next several weeks you might want to try things like lengthening the daylight schedule to try and give her a somewhat subtle cue that it's time to start waking back up.
 

Squiggydoo

Member
Original Poster
Yeah, I'm bummed that she missed the whole summer too. I was planning on taking her outside to get some nice sunshine. She is in my bedroom that I'm in most of the day so it isn't totally dark in there for her. I'll try turning her lights on for a bit in a few weeks. She's always been kind of a lazy dragon and kind of a jerk about brumation. It doesn't really surprise me that she's been out this long. She just loves to make me worried. And of course she decides to do this over the entire quarantine while I've been home so I can't spend any time with her. :(
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
I would definitely put the lights on full time again, it's time for Sleeping Beauty to wake up. :)
 

fcooper

Hatchling Member
I've definitely heard of dragons brumating for longer. I'd just leave him be and let him do his thing. My dragon has only brumated once in five years (and only for about 2 weeks...), but everything I've seen says to just leave him alone.
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
The dragon should have the lights turned on to give it the sense that the seasons have changed. It makes it a lot more difficult if the dragon has no cues. , if not that can keep them in a longer brumation which really isn't the norm. My dragons have all brumated over a 25 year period of owning them, generally for 3 month at the longest.
 
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