I need brumation explained. Top to bottom.

[Felly]

Ok. So. My spikey son JubJub has been acting odd for about a week now. Ive tried reading up about Brumation but i get alot of varied answers. Jubby is only 14 months and before last week i had never heard of brumation. He is my first reptile and i really am doing my best. Can someone give me a really detailed explanation of what it is.
These are his symptoms. He doesnt seem to sit up on his log and bask. He just lies on his tiles under the hear sleeping. Hes not running around as much. And for at least 3 weeks, everytime we bring him out at night to watch tv or whatever he tries to burrow into/under anything. Including our armpits. Lol. But more recently he has been having what sounds like a cough? Like a little puff of air. He has been eating his crickets still but wont touch his vegies. I had crushed walnut shells in a small part of his tank for a few months (i didnt know any better) and thats where he used to dig in and sleep. After reading some scary stuff ive thrown it out and he has tiles and fake grass. Im not too good on naming my bulbs and stuff. But its suddenly in the last few weeks gotten freeeezing here in australia and his tank is glass and has been struggling to hold heat. I also failed to realise for like a week that his water had all evaporated. So idk if low humidity would make him act like this. Ive insulated his tank and have an appointment with an exotics vet in 2 days. If anybody has any advice. Id love to hear it

 

[Claudiusx]

Before looking into brumation as the cause for a dragons health issues you first want to look at the setup and make sure it is up to par.

From what it sounds like though it doesn't seem up to par if you "aren't good with bulb names". The brand and type of bulb is extremely important and you NEED to be familiar with them for the health of your dragon.

Dragons are desert creatures, they NEED low humidity, you shouldn't be trying to keep a high humidity level, that can cause URI's which coughing is a symptom of.

Do you know your current temps in the tank at the moment? If it is a URI you are going to need to make sure the temps are spot on.
Do you know which uvb bulb you have? you should be able to turn off the bulb and examine the bulb for any company stamps.

-Brandon

 

[Felly]

I have a 100w ceramic heat lamp. And an exo terra canopy with a 10.0 repti glo uvb light. I dont have a humidity gauge because I was told the stick on ones from the pet shop were inaccurate. I was going to post somewhere else asking for a good inexpensive brand.
I would still like brumation explained. If anyone can help with that.

 

[Claudiusx]

Here is an article on brumation, but, from what you have described with your lighting I am willing to bet money that the behavior your dragon is exhibiting is from improper husbandry, and not brumation. This is something you need to fix.

http://www.beardeddragon.org/articles/brumation/

-Brandon

 

[Felly]

Thanks for the contempt. First time inexperienced reptiles owners totally need to be treated with condescension . And definitly not patience and understanding. So damn me for trying my best and asking for help. Youve been super. Im working my way through all the questions that I have. And hadnt gotten around to being drilled on lighting. Yet. Thanks for that. I love feeling like a terrible owner, because I dont have all the information I need.

 

[Claudiusx]

You're last comment was what made me reiterate my statement since you didn't take it to heart the first time as was made apparent in your response to it. After already saying twice that you need to look into your husbandry first, and you just pushing the advice to the side.

We all have been in the same boat with you, no one was born with all the knowledge needed to take care of these reptiles. You can either take the help and advice i'm trying to offer or you can disregard it. But I will make one thing clear the only reason I am even posting is because I care about the health of your dragon, and everything I say isn't even meant for you, it's meant to give your dragon a better life. So thinking I am just trying to run you over because you don't have very much experience is totally false.

-Brandon

 

[Felly]

I didnt push your advice aside. Im up at 3am in the morning posting questions trying to help my beardy. I was literally in another forum reading about lighting and felt no need to respond to that part since I was already reading about it and my question was about brumation, and it was off topic. I realize that youre best interest is for my dragon but the information has to go through me before it gets to him and starts helping.

 

[BuddyNotBud]

Hi, I just looked here and saw that you had a 10.0 Repti-Glo bulb for UVB, I can attest to the fact that the Repti-Glo bulbs can cause problems in your dragon's behavior. I started my beardie on a Repti-Glo, and he acted very strangely until I got him a Repti-Sun 10.0 bulb. Try and get him a Repti-Sun 10.0 bulb, they're easily the best bulb to get.

 

[Felly]

Ok. Stupid pet stores. I wish I had known how horrible their advice is! Its the same bulb ive had since I got him in august. Can I buy these on ebay? I live in australia and the pet stores have less than 1 shelf dedicated to reptiles and they all stock the same branda. Exo terra and reptiglo. he has NEVER acted funny until now..can it take that long for his behaviour to change? Will he change if I change brands?

 

[BuddyNotBud]

You can get them brand-new from Amazon.com.

http://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Med-ReptiSun%C2%AE-Fluorescent-24-Inch/dp/B0009YHSWK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1337103380&sr=8-1

When I got my Buddy a Repti-Sun, his behavior improved in days. When he was on the Repti-Glo, he acted very strangely, jumping around, trying to grab and eat things that weren't there, while totally ignoring the food that he had in his food bowl.

 

[Felly]

Thanks so much for the link. Im in bed, as its 330 and i cant see on my phone if they shop internationally? Ive never used amazon before.

 

[athenacp]

I found this from the Australia part of the board:

http://www.petcityonline.com.au/products.asp?MainID=Reptile&CatID=062&mainc=Reptile+Lighting&offset=18

I dont know if Amazon ships international, but the above place is in Australia

 

[Felly]

Thankyou! Its hard to see on my phone are these one of the 2 good brands? And tubes? Are they really long? I have a canopy that takes bulbs with screw threads.
Sorry im a total noob.

 

[diamc]

I wanted to let you know that Brandon was trying to be helpful and was not being critical at all. I think you would be very surprised by the number of posts that the longstanding members here have seen when the owner suspected their beardie was going through brumation when once their setup was twinked somewhat, it made all the difference in the world and their beardie become much more active and healthy. That's why Brandon mentioned what he did and wanted to go over things with you. There are things that need to be ruled out before brumation can actually even be suspected. Brandon has been here a long time and is always very helpful so I'm hoping you will take that into consideration if he is willing to chime in on this thread again to try to help out.

As a member now rather than a moderator, I agree with BuddyNotBud that at least some of the symptoms you're noticing could be from the Repti-Glo bulb. Those particular brands put out a large amount (too much) of UV index in the beginning and then decline very rapidly which doesn't help prevent metabolic bone disease and can actually cause other health issues and concerns. If your bulb was over 6 months old, it is probably not producing hardly any UV at all anymore. If you can find the Repti-SUN 10.0 tube or the Arcadia bulbs in your area, that would be a good idea. Both of the bulbs I just mentioned have rated the highest during testing that Frances Baines (the UVB expert) has done over the years.

I noticed that you are using a ceramic heat emitter for heating the tank. Beardies love bright white lighting and do much better when they have a white basking bulb alongside the UVB light so they can get the benefit of both bulbs at the same time. It's also very important to know exactly what the basking SURFACE temp is as well as the temp on the bottom of the cool side. The only 2 ways to get accurate readings are with either an infrared temperature gun or a digital thermometer with a long wire and probe end. With the probe thermometer, you place the probe right on the basking log or rock and then wait about 45 min to an hr for the temp to stop rising before getting the final reading. Then you do the same thing on the bottom of the cool side by placing the probe on the bottom there. For a 14 month beardie, the basking temp should be in the range of 37.7 to 40.5 celcius and the cool side should be 25.5 to 27.7 with 26.6 being ideal.

Happy to hear that you got rid of the walnut shells, that will be much safer for your beardie.

It would be a good idea to pick up a humidity gauge, you should be able to get a pretty decent humidity reading with the round gauge types of those. The humidity shouldn't ever be any higher than 40% though. A cough could be a sign of an upper respiratory infection which can be caused by too high of humidity and could also be from ingesting water the wrong way so would be a good idea to get that checked out as beardies can develop pneumonia very quickly.

We are here to help and if you have any questions, please let us know.

 

[Felly]

I wasnt saying my beardy is sick and i think its brumation. I have NO idea what im talking about. Im taking him to a vet to get him checked over. I seriously just found out about brumation and wanted to know all about it. My beardy is coughing and from little i can tell..thats not a sign of brumation. I merely took offence to the way he was speaking to me. Keep in mind were on opposite sides of the world and were trying to interpret emotions to go with text. It doesnt always come across right. I wasnt brushing off what he had said. I was in the middle of reading and posting about it elsewhere.

Im for sure going to buy one of those bulbs tomorrow. Ill all some stores but i think ill have to buy it online.
And with the heat bulb, i cant have a bright light on him at night. And i need the heat 24/7..so i dont quite get wht you mean?
i cant afford another probe thermometer as theyre 100 bucks in Pet stores..taking him to the vet is going to cost me 100 and will leave me pretty broke. I guess i can try find a one online? Idk about the reliability thou gh. And again with the humidity gauge. Ive been told the stick on ones available in pet stores are unreliable? Im worried im not going to be able to find all this stuff and get it shipped to australia. This is stressing me out. And now i think i may of made him sicker! Twice since hes been coughing ive sprayed water in his mouth while hes eating. First i thought he was coughing because he needed a drink nd second time he gagged while eating a cricket. I feel so horrible right now i think hes sick because of me.
If he does have URI what will the vet do?