New substrate to Brumate in?

[AprilMayJune]

Hello once again fellow Beardie lovers!

I have read the article on this site about Brumation and understand if quite well. I have done research elsewhere on Brumation as well. The article on here seems far superior. Thanks for the awesome read!! Kudos to you for writing it to help everyone in this stressful time.

I am suspecting my boy Lance (guessing he is 2 years old) is going into brumation. He is slowing down on his eating, to barely anything. He sleeps quite a bit. He hides in the cool spot more often than he used to. He shifts his newspaper substrate so he can hide under it. I usually pull him out from under it and tuck a fleece blanket under him and put another blanket on top of him when I see him do this and he doesn't complain. He goes to bed earlier at night even with the Mega Ray on. I haven't totally submitted to him going into brumation as I do try to tempt him to eat and play. I don't want to until I know for sure that he is going and that I am prepared with lots of research and help.

My question that I haven't seen addressed anywhere in my research on brumation:

Should I change his substrate to something a little more comfortable for when he does go into his brumation? Currently we used newspaper whilst the new viv is being constructed. I just want him to be comfortable and i personally wouldn't find newspaper to sleep on overly cozy. Should I keep the paper down and keep his bankets in with him now? I usually just let him sleep on his blankey at night and remove it during the day because he seems to like to poo on it. Since he won't be pooing during his brumation it wouldn't be a problem keeping it in for him. Would he feel more cozy if I put sand in for him? He used to have sand but I've changed that because he was licking it a lot. (Previous owners kept him and his g/f together in same viv with sand - that's changed now too). What about other substrates?

Any recommendations/advice is ALWAYS appreciated. I love this forum and those that are on it. You are all here for the right reasons - to keep our Beardies safe, happy and healthy!

Thanks and have a great day!

 

[invictusrules]

I don't have a lot of experience with this since Invictus just entered (and hopefully exited) his first brumation. While he was asleep, I left his blankie under him. It made me feel better, anyway, since he's on tile. He got up every few days to do a really slow circle on top of the material before snuggling down again. Gave me the stink-eye, too, like "what are you doing up at this hour?" Today, he crawled up on his log, got a bath, gobbled up a big fat hornworm, and warmed up enough to gape! Woot! I hope he's had enough of the sleepies.

Good luck with Lance. It sounds like he's got a very caring slave. :wink: