Brumation...

[Thomo]

Hey everyone, i have a Bearded dragon that is 17 months old and i think he is going into Hibernation, this is the first time i have experienced this before and im a bit curious/worried about it all and just want to make sure this is what his actually doing...

for the past 6 weeks or so he has been not so energetic and wanting to sit over in the cooler part of his home, saying that its not like his still not lively and alert. he seems fine, no loss of loss of appetite w/crickes, meal worms or veggies / i have a dish in there 24/7 with 'bearded dragon pelets' so he can eat when ever he gets hungry, he usually has a go at them every day about an hour or so after he wakes up and ill feed him his crickes and veggies in the afternoon.. there is also a dish in there for water that i replace avery 2 days or so and a couple of times a week ill give him some water through a syringe just so i know his hydrated.. + he will poop every 4 days or so and if he dosent i will give him a warm bath to help.

on friday afternoon (about 4 hours before all his light turn off) he went into his log and went to sleep and hasnt come out since and today is tuesday.. i check on him a few times a day and he is still breathing an everything and opens his eyes sometimes when its abit loud around the house and i can sometimes hear him scratching for a few seconds/hear him turning around..

he did poop a day or 2 before he went in his long but i also fed him after he did, do i need to worry about this if his going to sleep for the next couple of months / Does this sound like his going into Hibernation? and is there anything i need to worry about or do?

any help would be much appreciated

Thanks!

 

[catUK]

It does sound like brumation from what ive read about it, although I have not had personal experience of brumation so cant be 100% sure. However i have read that if they go into brumation their stomach should be empty so food doesn't rot, perhaps when he's next awake you could try bathing him to produce a bowel movement and get rid of the last lot of food he ate then let him sleep after that. This link from this site has a good article about brumation that may help (hope it does) http://www.beardeddragon.org/articles/brumation/

 

[MattBlack]

Hey my Lime went into brumation jsut before christmas, ever so worried i called vets and a reptile specialist and they said dont worry they do it now and then hen they feel like it being from australia natrulay they dont "hibernate" but as its colder in the west they have started to.

Your beardie will back to its normal investigative self soon just give him time and he will be right as rain XD

hope the info helped

Matt