My beardie has been hiding under his reptile carpet off and on for the last few days & nights. At 1st I thought maybe he was hot and in doing this his belly is on the cool glass of the bottom of the tank. He also hasn't been eating as many crickets as he use to. he's about 10 months old and has grown a lot since we got him 8 months ago. I'm wondering is there a "hibernation period" which makes him eat less and hide more? He looks fine and healthy besides this strange behavior.
does anyone have an input on what he's doing or if I should be concerned?
Bearded dragons do go through brumation (hibernation) when the outside temps start to drop, but yours shouldn't yet. Typically, beardies don't brumate under one year old.
What are his basking/cool side temps? And what do you use to measure the temps with?
My vet said it was possible. If their internal age is older than their real age. My Simon who will be a year old in february went into brumation mid september. It may not be a full brumation because he'll sleep for 2-3 days and then be awake for a couple days but he refuses to eat, and if he does, it's not much at all. He got a clean bill of health after a harsh battle with parasites in september. I would just get a fecal done to make sure nothing is going on inside.