Bearded dragon hiding

[Jesse103]

Hello, I have noticed recently that my (I think one year old) bearded dragon had been hiding more than usual. During the day, I come to check on him and I find him just laying in his cave. One day I even found him asleep while he was in there. He has been eating normally. I am trying to switch him over to be eating more greens (along with some dubia roaches). I'm not sure what could be wrong. He used to not hide all the time. He gets his calcium and d3 3 times a week, and I have been trying to bathe him because he could be a bit dehydrated. Sometimes after his bath he stops hiding, but then the next day he is back to hiding. He doesn't drink water, or lick it off his nose if I drip it on it. I'm just concerned with what could be going on with him. His uvb is about a month old 10.0. His basking site temp is 98-102F. I use reptile carpet for his substrate. He weighs 340.194grams (about 3/4lbs) and is about 16 inches. When he is in his cave, he feels cold which doesn't seem normal to me because he usually is basking under the lamp. Thanks
Jesse

 

[Jesse103]

These are some pictures of him

 

[CooperDragon]

It sounds like he might be trying to brumate. My guy is acting sluggish like that recently too. If you want to let him sleep I would take him out and weigh him every few days and keep track of it. He shouldn't be losing much weight if he is brumating because they slow their metabolism. Offer some water drops on his nose to lick up but otherwise let him be. If you want to try and keep him up, just take him out of the hide and interact with him a bit. Put him under his basking light or in a window sill to see the natural sunlight (or take him outside if he likes that). That may help keep him from going into a full brumation.

 

[Jesse103]

Okay, so how exactly do i replicate brumation??? He is my first dragon and just want to make sure l will be doing thingd right. Also, would you recommend that he goes into full brumation, or should I try to keep him up. I just want to do what's best for him.
Thanks again!

 

[CooperDragon]

The first time I saw this in person was last fall and I let my dragon go into brumation. I just woke him up every few days to weigh him and offer some water. Then he'd go back to sleep or just bask for a little bit with very sleepy look on his face. He would sometimes sleep for days at a time and sometimes would wake up for a bit so I'd let him out to roam a little. He only lost 4% of his body weight over the 3 months. Then he started waking up and after a few weeks was bouncing off the walls with energy. He lost more weight then but as he slowed back down to normal his appetite came back up and he put all the weight back on. That seems to be a fairly typical route for brumation. Sometimes they are reported to just slow down a bit and sleep once in a while. As long as their weight is pretty stable that's OK too.

 

[Jesse103]

Okay, so should I give him a bath so he poops, and then switch out the heat bulb for a lower wattage so the temperature drops a bit? Do i have to cover his tank with a blanket or anything? Should I continue to offer him food every day?
Thanks again

 

[CooperDragon]

I kept the tank lights and temps exactly the same and on the normal schedule. You can try a bath for a poop if you want to. You can offer small amounts of food but he will likely refuse them as his metabolism is slowed. Focus more on dripping water so he can lick that up if he wants (don't force it) just to make sure he doesn't get dehydrated.

 

[roboboy542]

It could be brumation, although another possibility is that he's depressed. I don't know a lot about this and I have only had my first beardie for 7 months now, but based on my research from the internet, beardies can get depressed. I don't know how to tell depression from brumation so I can't help you there, although it's something to consider. Especially if you don't do stuff with him every once in a while (sitting in a tank all day everyday can get boring lol). I watch tv with mine and let him explore around my house. I don't know how much help this will be since I don't know how to tell the difference between depression and brumation and the action you should take for each of them is the opposite of the other (brumation: let him be and don't disturb. depression: get him out of his tank and moving around.)

Anyways, it's something to think about and someone more experienced than me might be able to shed some light on this possibility. Hope this helps.

 

[CooperDragon]

With brumation (vs depression/mood) even when they are out and interacting they will shortly look around for some place to sleep like under a couch etc. They kind of act like they are on sleeping pills all the time and are pretty groggy in general. If it's mood related they tend to perk up a lot when they are interacting and have some stimuli around them. This of course varies between dragons and there are different levels of both brumation and bad mood.