Bearded Dragon still in brumation 7 months...

[LanceMurdoc]

Hey I could really use some help/advice, my bearded dragon (female) probably close to a year and a half old started slowing down about 7 months ago, going into her den which I had always provided but she had never used her entire life really and sleeping all day, doing online research and seeing that many dragons usually start brumation in September I didn't worry too much, through the entire brumation I kept the light cycle the same, only reducing the hours from 14 to 12, btw I keep her in a 40 gallon breeder, with a 24" reptisun ubv light in the tank, with a seperet basking light, basking spot reaches around 105-108 hot side of the tank arts around 85-90 cool side usually around 75, before the slow down she ate fine a salad every morning of kale, turnip greens, mustard green and coligreens ( although I stopped kale because I heard it was bad and coligreens gave her diarhia), in the afternoon I gave her crickets and super worms in the afternoons dusting 3-4 times a week, during this brumation I have been leaving her alone as much as possible waking her every two weeks to bath her, when I did she would eat a few worms if I offered and would poop every so often, lately Ive been bathing her every week and when I do she basks for a little while maybe even the whole day but then it's right back to the den, I've tried taking her outside to feel the sun letting her roam the room for hours, but whenever I put her in the tank she crawls right into the den and goes back to sleep, through this whole time she kept a very healthy figure, her tail is still very fat, but this last month ive notice she seems to be getting on the skinny side, when awake she is very alert and looks very healthy, she had been asleep for so long I am almost forgetting what her normal behavior was before, she seems to only eat worms and at the most 3 bites of salad if I hand feed her, I'm posting because it's hit the 7 month mark and she has shown little signs of speeding back up again, any advice?

 

[Bwalter]

I sure wish I could help you. My girl was at 5 1/2 months before she finally woke up with help from me. now almost a month later, she is a pig with eating and going nuts running everywhere. I am bumping this so someone can help you out.
Heres what I did, not sure if she just started to wake up or if I had something to do with it. I had her lights on for 10 hours, upped them to 13 hours, and would wake her up in the morning, and put her on her basking place, and tried to feed her, for about 2 weeks, she wouldn't eat, but would bask, then after that she would eat every other day until now shes eating 2 times a day now and packing on the weight.

 

[KristenT]

Good luck! The only think i can think of is take the hidey hole out and bump the temps up.

 

[AtlasStrike]

You might need to cool her down before you can warm her up. Brumating is instinctual, but keeping the temperatures in the normal/high not brumation range prevents them from properly cooling and regulating their metabolisms. Bring her down to about 55-60 degrees first, and then very slowly over a week or more bring the temps back up into the high 70's. That gradual warming should kick start her waking up instincts. In the future, I would say that is she goes down, shut off the lights and heat and hopefully she won't sleep for so long, and if she does you'll save a bunch in energy costs.

 

[GlueStick]

To contrast...

my male will go down in August to February, so in total, 7 months in brumation. And then suddenly, he wakes up, his bowls start coming back to life and he poops nearly everyday for a week and he begins to eat like a monster again. He started brumating a 1 year old. He is 4 years old.

my female has never brumated in her life and she is 3 years old.