So my beardie was refusing food and hiding all day. Took him the vet, nothing wrong with this blood work, xrays and he had no parasites. Any time I let him out of his tank he would just find a dark place to crawl under. This went on for a while. He is in a 55 gallon tank with tile, a uvb strip light t10, and a heat lamp. His hot side is 90 with a basking of 104. He cool side is 80 and I use a repti temp gun to measure. So I decided he must be wanting to brumate because I couldn’t think of any other explanation. He’s two and I have had him a year. So I shortened his light cycle for a week, then the second week I turned off the uvb. He never came out during those two weeks or ate. The third week I shut everything down and only left the heat lamp on. This is when I officially counted the brukation as starting, 9/27/18. I check on him and sometimes he’s asleep, but a lot of times he has his eyes open slightly, and he changes positions everyday. He shifts around underneath the hide but never comes out. He’s definitely not in a full sleep. I am worried, is this normal? He’s just supposed to come out one day and be normal again? This is my first brumation and I’m worried I’m not doing the right thing.
That sounds like normal brumation behavior. I usually leave my lights on the same schedule during brumation. Take him out once or twice a week (or if he pops his head out of the hide) to offer some water and record his weight. His weight should stay pretty stable- no drastic weight loss. Otherwise I'd just let him be.