I am almost certain my baby dragon is trying to brumate

[ZiggyDust]

I am almost certain my baby dragon is trying to brumate. Ziggy is going on 6 months and ever since I moved Ziggy into their new habitat, they haven’t been the same. At first I assumed it was just adjusting to the new habitat. Now I am not so sure. Its been over 3 weeks since I relocated Ziggy.

Ziggy is super lazy in the mornings. Typically hiding all morning and afternoon. I try to keep them active and move them to a basking spot as often as I can. Sometimes they will stay on their basking rock for a few minutes, hour max on a good day and then will go hide/sleep all day if I let them.

I know it’s not too hot on the basking spots as Ziggy will stay on their rock for 5 hours in the evening mouth open sometimes. Is it possible my young dragon is trying to brute? Ziggy has had two fecal test in the firs 90 days I have had them. Both test were fine. The most recent about a month ago.

What do I do? I do not want to risk their growth and health.

Here is how Ziggy has eaten her the last few days. This isn’t normal for them.

Saturday: Very few bugs no Veggies
Sunday: No Food at all
Monday: Had veggies, no bugs
Tuesday: No veggie, maybe 6 bugs
Wednesday: No veggie, maybe 6 bugs


Habitat information
- 8x2x2 Zen Habitat Enclosure
-Air Temps are 88- 90°F on the left (warm side) and down to 79° on the right (cool side)
- Air Temps are a little lower than normal as if I raise the air temps to much, the basing spots will be way too hot.
- Basking temps ranging from 113°F to 95° (Ziggy has multiple basking spots)
- Two Reptisun T5 10.0 UVB lights covering 2/3 of enclosure

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

How much does Ziggy weigh? Technically they can brumate as early as 6 months but usually
they don't until around 1 year or so.
If you have any pictures you can post of him & the setup just so we can see his condition that
would help.
Are you using a digital probe or temp gun to measure the temps? The heating & UVB lighting,
etc sounds perfect for him. That is a nice sized tank, no doubt, so he should love all of the
room that he has.
The ambient temps are fine, you could probably even lower them to around 75-82 if possible
in case he needs to cool off a bit more.
Is her weight staying stable?
You have two dragons in the tank?

Tracie

 

[ZiggyDust]

Hello,

How much does Ziggy weigh? Technically they can brumate as early as 6 months but usually
they don't until around 1 year or so.
If you have any pictures you can post of him & the setup just so we can see his condition that
would help.
Are you using a digital probe or temp gun to measure the temps? The heating & UVB lighting,
etc sounds perfect for him. That is a nice sized tank, no doubt, so he should love all of the
room that he has.
The ambient temps are fine, you could probably even lower them to around 75-82 if possible
in case he needs to cool off a bit more.
Is her weight staying stable?
You have two dragons in the tank?

Tracie

Using a temp gun to measure surface temps. I also have used probes in the past and the probes where within 1° of the temp gun.

I have attached photos of the habitat and of Ziggy. The lighting looks more intense than it is. It took me a solid 2 weeks to get the temp right with the proper amount of bulbs and wattage. You would be surprised how hard it is to adequately heat 8 feet. More difficult than I imagined.

Ziggy weighed roughy 213g about a week ago and as of now, weights about 208g. Not sure if that’s just within a margin of error, or if Ziggy is losing weight.

Just one dragon. Wanted to wait until Ziggy is a little older before sexing them. So I use they instead of he/she. Just my personal preference until I sex Ziggy.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

The tank setup looks terrific, very nice & bright! I know, it does take a good amount of time
to get everything all setup properly & to get the temperatures optimal.
How is Ziggy doing?
Is he eating very much?
He looks good, his colors are beautiful. A little bit of weight loss is acceptable, so do keep
an eye on it to be sure his weight doesn't fluctuate more than a 10-15 grams difference.

Let us know how he is doing.

Tracie

 

[ZiggyDust]

Hello,

The tank setup looks terrific, very nice & bright! I know, it does take a good amount of time
to get everything all setup properly & to get the temperatures optimal.
How is Ziggy doing?
Is he eating very much?
He looks good, his colors are beautiful. A little bit of weight loss is acceptable, so do keep
an eye on it to be sure his weight doesn't fluctuate more than a 10-15 grams difference.

Let us know how he is doing.

Tracie

Hi. Thanks for the reply.

Ziggy did eat some vegetables yesterday a few times. So that’s good. Ziggy also ate about 10 roaches. So better than they have been. Now If I can keep that up and keep them from spending most of the day in the cold, we should be good.

 

[ZiggyDust]

Hello,

The tank setup looks terrific, very nice & bright! I know, it does take a good amount of time
to get everything all setup properly & to get the temperatures optimal.
How is Ziggy doing?
Is he eating very much?
He looks good, his colors are beautiful. A little bit of weight loss is acceptable, so do keep
an eye on it to be sure his weight doesn't fluctuate more than a 10-15 grams difference.

Let us know how he is doing.

Tracie

Hi. Thanks for the reply.

Ziggy did eat some vegetables yesterday a few times. So that’s good. Ziggy also ate about 10 roaches. So better than they have been. Now If I can keep that up and keep them from spending most of the day in the cold, we should be good.

Side note: I did an experiment today. And I am kicking myself for not doing it sooner. So I obviously dust Ziggy’s food with calcium powder, calcium D3, or a multivitamin once a day. So Ziggy had about 4 roaches coated with calcium and ate those fine. Then, Ziggy refused to eat anymore so I decided to try a roach not coated. Ziggy ate that fine. Tried this on and off and realized, Ziggy now hates coated roaches. Ziggy went on to eat 10 non-coated roaches but refused anymore coated roaches.

So no that Ziggy hates coated roaches, how can I make sure they get their right amount of calcium and vitamins?

 

[blue11]

My girls first burmation was at 7.5 months

 

[djnewman001]

Side note: I did an experiment today. And I am kicking myself for not doing it sooner. So I obviously dust Ziggy’s food with calcium powder, calcium D3, or a multivitamin once a day. So Ziggy had about 4 roaches coated with calcium and ate those fine. Then, Ziggy refused to eat anymore so I decided to try a roach not coated. Ziggy ate that fine. Tried this on and off and realized, Ziggy now hates coated roaches. Ziggy went on to eat 10 non-coated roaches but refused anymore coated roaches.

So no that Ziggy hates coated roaches, how can I make sure they get their right amount of calcium and vitamins?

My beardie, Oliver is off and on about coated roaches. But what I do is, if he’s in the non coated mood I put the calcium in the bottom of the feeding dish. This works out well because he’s a lousy shot on the first few roaches so he ends up getting a tongue full of calcium until his aim gets better. He’s been much better about eating the dusted roaches lately though.

 

[ZiggyDust]

My beardie, Oliver is off and on about coated roaches. But what I do is, if he’s in the non coated mood I put the calcium in the bottom of the feeding dish. This works out well because he’s a lousy shot on the first few roaches so he ends up getting a tongue full of calcium until his aim gets better. He’s been much better about eating the dusted roaches lately though.

I can get her to eat about 3-4 coated roaches before she refuses to eat. And after she has had enough of non-coated roaches, I will give her a hornworm or 2 coated. She doesn’t seem to mind those coated. Lol.

 

[ZiggyDust]

My girls first burmation was at 7.5 months

That’s crazy too. I feel bad because mine lost about 2 months of being able to grow. I don’t think Ziggy will be too big, she is growing though so that’s good.

How did yours handle the lost time for growing?

 

[blue11]

Hey!

So her first brumation (7.5 / 8 months) was very short compared to each brumation following that. The first was about 1 month of sleep … she went down on her own and woke up on her own - but then each one of her brumations following that one for the next 10 years of her life have averaged about 4.5 - 5 months of deep sleep - again with her initiating the start and the end each time. She grew to be a 17.5 inch healthy female - I don’t really think there was lost growth time as she continued to grow and shed and consistently past that first month long sleep. She will actually be 11 years old very soon - this coming Feb 2022. And - she just woke up this year from her burmation about a week and half ago! This year hers was late July - early December.

I do feel like it’s an really important process for her and her health, and she knows way more than I do about herself as to what’s natural and healthy for her … I totally trust her actions more than my own ! But yeps, some beardies with early in the year hatch dates can and will go down towards the end of that year. Your Ziggy is gorgeous by the way!

 

[AHBD]

Sometimes just moving them to the new enclosure triggers the desire to hide and eventually slow down to a near brumation. Good to hear that Ziggy is still doing well, this should not cause any problem with a healthy dragon.

 

[Beansbanana]

Using a temp gun to measure surface temps. I also have used probes in the past and the probes where within 1° of the temp gun.

I have attached photos of the habitat and of Ziggy. The lighting looks more intense than it is. It took me a solid 2 weeks to get the temp right with the proper amount of bulbs and wattage. You would be surprised how hard it is to adequately heat 8 feet. More difficult than I imagined.

Ziggy weighed roughy 213g about a week ago and as of now, weights about 208g. Not sure if that’s just within a margin of error, or if Ziggy is losing weight.

Just one dragon. Wanted to wait until Ziggy is a little older before sexing them. So I use they instead of he/she. Just my personal preference until I sex Ziggy.

Hi, do you remember what tile you used, it looks really nice! Is it textured enough to keep their nails short?

 

[ZiggyDust]

Hi, do you remember what tile you used, it looks really nice! Is it textured enough to keep their nails short?

It’s decently textured. My beardie likes to run around like a maniac so her nails stay decently trimmed.

Here is the link. I got it at Home Depot. It’s 8 pieces to a box or you can buy each piece individually. Does take some cutting, pretty simply compared to most tiles. I just bought a title cutter. It’s definitely worth the finished look.

 

[Beansbanana]

Thanks so much! I think it would look really nice in Beans’s enclosure.