How long do they brumate for in the wild ??

[LennyTheLizardKing]

I put Len down on Dec 22 for the first time, He is about 2.5 years old. The lights have been off in his viv and i have given him 3 baths last one was last night. Anyway im just wondering how long do i keep this up for??

 

[Dementeddogz]

It varies for each dragon but is usually november to mid febuary. Some will brumate, some wont brumate at all and even when they do can be a light brumation, or a semi comatose brumation o.0 Len sounds like a males name?

 

[LennyTheLizardKing]

It varies for each dragon but is usually november to mid febuary. Some will brumate, some wont brumate at all and even when they do can be a light brumation, or a semi comatose brumation o.0 Len sounds like a males name?

Well this is the first time i have turned the lights off and just let him sleep.. He woke up a bit once he warmed up in the bath but then i placed him back in his viv under his hide and off he went back to sleep. So will he just wake up on his own one day in the dark?? Or do i turn the lights on after a period of time?

 

[Dementeddogz]

It depends on the dragon but i tend to somewhat mimic outside daylight during the window. right now they are on roughly a 10 hour set up opposed to the normal 14. I dont have much of a choice though, we have close to 20 windows viewable from their set up :shock: its generally the females who brumate but males can brumate aswell. We have one set up on the same schedule as the females. We usually have them start warming back up come mid February give or take a couple weeks.

 

[blue11]

Hi

I'm kind of going through the same deal, you are def not alone. Bluebelle went totally down in mid November and is still sleeping like a rock. All lights are off, given her a few baths, pretty much sounds the same as you and Len .... I too wonder if they will just wake up in dark and what do you do then? Or do you start the lights on when you "think" they have slept long enough ... It confuses me too! I mean I know we want nature to take its course, but nature can be totally weird! If Len wakes up, give me a shout ... I would love to know how the waking up process works. And if Blue wakes up I will give you a shout ... Maybe we can help each other out, sounds like are dragons are on the very same page!
Em

 

[rdoyle]

I think mine is burmat should I turn the lights off and just heater with out light?

 

[LennyTheLizardKing]

Hi

I'm kind of going through the same deal, you are def not alone. Bluebelle went totally down in mid November and is still sleeping like a rock. All lights are off, given her a few baths, pretty much sounds the same as you and Len .... I too wonder if they will just wake up in dark and what do you do then? Or do you start the lights on when you "think" they have slept long enough ... It confuses me too! I mean I know we want nature to take its course, but nature can be totally weird! If Len wakes up, give me a shout ... I would love to know how the waking up process works. And if Blue wakes up I will give you a shout ... Maybe we can help each other out, sounds like are dragons are on the very same page!
Em

Hello sorry for the late reply, Yes we are definitely on the same boat with our dragons lol. So hows Bluebelle, have you found out more on the waking up process? Everyone I've asked seems to never give me a straight answer.

 

[keen77]

I have 2 Dragons, one slept for about 2 weeks and then woke up and the other one only about a week.

 

[LennyTheLizardKing]

I have 2 Dragons, one slept for about 2 weeks and then woke up and the other one only about a week.

Oh okay my guy is 2.5years and this is the first time I have turned the lights off. Hes never had a chance to brumate before cuz the lights were on and i'd always wake him up, now im just letting him sleep with the lights off. Its been about 32 days, i gave him a bath last night and he opened an eye for a sec then shut it and went back to sleep. So will he just wake up once hes slept enough? What if he doesnt because the lights are off ? ...

 

[Dementeddogz]

I dont usually turn their lights off. They are more in sync with winter hours and can get down to 8 hours a day on opposed to 14. Building the a small hide they can fit their whole body into, on the cool side of the tank, is an option opposed to something to dig in. I usually keep fresh greens and a bowl of worms on hand for those who are off and on again brumaters. When he/she is ready to come out in most cases youll just find her strolling around cage or basking.

 

[keen77]

LennyTheLizardKing

Yea my guys have a hide, I turned off the UVB and just left on the basking light, they just woke up on their own, but even though I knew what it was I was just a little worried. Mine are about 1 and 1/2 and this is their first time to burmate.

 

[Jess]

Last year Dudley brumated for 5 months, but I had been waking him up periodically to feed and bathe him. This year I experimented a little, and didn't wake him up at all (No food, baths, or anything) and he only slept for 2 months.

I completely shut off all of Dud's lights when he brumates. He knows when he is ready to come out of it... The day he woke up, he was waiting for me on his basking platform looking all grumpy, like "Where are my lights, woman?!?!" :lol:

 

[blue11]

Hi

I'm kind of going through the same deal, you are def not alone. Bluebelle went totally down in mid November and is still sleeping like a rock. All lights are off, given her a few baths, pretty much sounds the same as you and Len .... I too wonder if they will just wake up in dark and what do you do then? Or do you start the lights on when you "think" they have slept long enough ... It confuses me too! I mean I know we want nature to take its course, but nature can be totally weird! If Len wakes up, give me a shout ... I would love to know how the waking up process works. And if Blue wakes up I will give you a shout ... Maybe we can help each other out, sounds like are dragons are on the very same page!
Em

Hello sorry for the late reply, Yes we are definitely on the same boat with our dragons lol. So hows Bluebelle, have you found out more on the waking up process? Everyone I've asked seems to never give me a straight answer.

Yeah I know what you mean! Well let me tell you what happened about ... 3hours ago. I took Blue out to give her a soak, which she has been sleeping through the soaks for like, EVER since she went into brumation. Never really woke up during a soak. This time, she opened her mouth to drink. I was like, a sign of life! A sign of life! Then she started to move around some In the water. Which shocked me. So after a while I took her out and gave her a towel buritto .... Sat her on the carpet while I got her blanket ready to put her back in the dark to keep sleeping ... She walked out of the towel ... Crawled around, so I turned on her viv lights, she ate like five bites of collards, roamed around the viv, basked for about 10 minutes ... So I thought, THIS IS IT! 30 minutes ago I looked in her room, annnnnnnd she was sleeping on her blanket like a rock. I dunno if that was a false alarm after being asleep for sooooo long, or if she is slowly starting to come out and this is her way of doing it. I shut the lights back down, I will see what happens this weekend. So, if it's any help at all ... I still don't know! Ha. Damnit. BUT I will TOTALLY keep ya updated. Basically I feel like I'm back to square one. Why why why why. Is Len still down for the count?

 

[szubelak]

I'm no expert but from all that I've read - be careful now that there is food in that little tummy - I know I personally worried if they ate when they woke up last year during brumation - I would force them to bask for at least 2 hours to help with digestion and then give baths every 2-3 days to help it pass through in case they wanted to go back into a deep brumation.

I too was confused last year with my first year a brumation with 2 different dragons - I had their lights completely off too. My vet's office actually had told me they didn't recommend letting them brumate (WTH!!!) but when I saw the vet last month I asked her about it and she told me about her 6 dragons and how they're all different - for the ones that get up occasionally she leaves the lights on but if they are "sleep like rock brumators" she just turned their lights off.

Personally I eventually got over-worried about my boys and turned their lights back on and started to wake them up (put them in their basking lights- I think it was around Feb-March ) I would go to work and at first came home to them being back in their hides asleep - I would wake them up again sometimes. If I got dirty looks I would back off the waking them up for a couple days and just turn the lights on. Eventually they came out of it and would stay up. I was worried about them waking up while I was at work and not being able to warm up because their lights were off so that's why I did it the way I did.

Good Luck!

 

[blue11]

hey!
how is Len? has he woken up yet?
here is what happened with Blue ... basically yesterday, i thought, ok, its warm, its spring here, maybe i will give her a little boost. lights have still been off, staying off, so nothing changed there. so i took her out, gave her a warm water soak, and put her under her light. she stayed awake, (kinda) ... but actually she stayed under the light, i let her bask for a little bit, took her out to see if she was interested in being alert, put her on the bed, and after a little bit, she walked around some. i was like, COOL ... it could be a false alarm, but im gonna just see where this goes. she went under the pillow once as if to go back to sleep ... so i lifted the pillow up a little bit, and kinda had he half under half out. her eyes started to get normal again, she started tilting her head at things, licking things here and there, walked around some, so i offered her a eaxworm bc that is all i had. she took two, and perched up on the pillow, awake and alert, for a few hours. we run our house on a wood stove, and even though it was a mild evening outside, occasionally we have to burn a really hot fire to kind of clean it out. well, last night was one of those nights so it just happened to be REALLLLLLLLLLLLY toasty (super hot for me, musta felt good for her) in the house. so i didnt mind so much letting her chill on the pillow for a while. before bed i made sure her viv lights were back off (i had turned them on earlier) and put her on her blanket. she was snoozing before no time. this AM i turned the lights back on, and when i came home, TADA! she was basking on her rock. came out on her own at some point the AM to bask. she isnt really interested in food right now, she took two bites of collards. so i gave her another soak in a little bit higher water this afternoon, and the moment i (pathetically and grossly) have been waiting for ... the first poop in almost 5 months!!! WOW i thought woah thank god that came out of her. she basked for maybe another hour, then just now went back to the cooler side and is tuckered out. i would be too i think!!!! but it LOOKS like, this might the end of brumation for Blue. the fact that she came out on here own today which she hasnt done in MONTHS is a huge deal. and the poop was a HUGE deal (LITERALLY) too. :shock:
im gonna cute the lights off around 7pm i guess and let her just be and turn them on at 7AM. i dont wanna throw too much at her at once right now.
seems like getting back in the routine of things like eating and being a active happy mood is gonna take a little while after a 4.5 month DEEP SLEEP. but i thought i would let you know, and share it with you, seeing how we were in the same beardie boat. she is starting to show small but sure signs of life, and the viv lights are gonna stay on a normal on/off routine again ... no more totally dark viv. i feel SOME sense of normalcy starting to unfold. How is Len? Whats happening with him? let me know if you can!!! ive been curious about him and thinking about him alot! CHEERS!
have a BEaRDIfUL DaY! ~ Em and Blue