second brumation

Taco brumated last year, starting around mid to end of March (not sure about which day to count as first day of brumation).

Taco is now in his cave for almost a week, awake during parts of the day (especially in the morning, and around human's dinner time), sleeping many hours per day.
He sometimes does 1 - 2 "cave days", and some of the last days have been a bit more windy and a bit more cloudy (think of: days that would still count as beautiful and hot summer days elsewhere, but are a bit "autumn feeling" for here). But now that he still hasn't left his cave makes me think: he's brumating again.

Btw.: This time he had chosen another cave. Last time he brumated he was around 10 months old and did fit behind/under the aloe and the back climbing wall. He is now using a different cave, also well hidden but a bit larger, but his size now he fits in snug into that one. He's now about 150 g heavier than when he brumated the first time.

 

[xp29]

Brumation, the saddest time of the year

 

[ChileanTaco]

Here two photos of him brumating.

 

[ChileanTaco]

I use this thread to keep track of his brumation a bit.
I count the day of my first posting in this thread, March 16, as the first day of his brumation as then I recognized it is not just a few "cave days" like he does them once in a while.
This time, I have his starting weight, as just a few days before I put him on the scale, 553 g. (The last time, I just had an estimate of around 400 g.)
His behavior now: He is usually awake around 6 am, looks quite alert just like usually when he wakes up in the morning, then sleeps or otherwise is napping during day, and is awake a bit (but less alert) during dinner time (human dinner time). He has not left his cave so far.

I have removed all food, except for his live plants (aloe, golliwog) which I keep in the enclosure and water regularly. His golliwog plant was about to be switched out (he ate a lot of it, so I normally would take it out to let it grow back on the balcony), but I keep it in now as it grows back in there, with him not harvesting it, just as well.
Otherwise, I do nothing.

 

[xp29]

I use this thread to keep track of his brumation a bit.
I count the day of my first posting in this thread, March 16, as the first day of his brumation as then I recognized it is not just a few "cave days" like he does them once in a while.
This time, I have his starting weight, as just a few days before I put him on the scale, 553 g. (The last time, I just had an estimate of around 400 g.)
His behavior now: He is usually awake around 6 am, looks quite alert just like usually when he wakes up in the morning, then sleeps or otherwise is napping during day, and is awake a bit (but less alert) during dinner time (human dinner time). He has not left his cave so far.

I have removed all food, except for his live plants (aloe, golliwog) which I keep in the enclosure and water regularly. His golliwog plant was about to be switched out (he ate a lot of it, so I normally would take it out to let it grow back on the balcony), but I keep it in now as it grows back in there, with him not harvesting it, just as well.
Otherwise, I do nothing.

Hopefully it isn't a long brumation. I know it's natural for them, BUT it's natural for us to miss them while their down to

 

[ChileanTaco]

Last time it was for 3 months. I suspect he does it again, as he tends to hide easily even when there is just a day with a bit of haze, a bit of wind - and he's gone for 1 - 3 days.

I especially miss him as despite of course the daylight time decreases now, it is (and stays) sunny and warm, I could even take him out (if he would not be brumating), I sit on the balcony with shorts and a tanktop... and will be able to do so almost all winter long... But the decreasing daylight length just triggers it.

 

[xp29]

Last time it was for 3 months. I suspect he does it again, as he tends to hide easily even when there is just a day wit a bit of haze, a bit of wind - and he's gone for 1 - 3 days.

I especially miss him as despite of course the daylight time decreases now, it is (and stays) sunny and warm, I could even take him out (if he would not be brumating), I sit on the balcony with shorts and a tanktop... and will be able to do so almost all winter long... But the decreasing daylight length just triggers it.

Yup, can't fool the internal clock

 

[Chris.]

Brumation, the saddest time of the year

So true!

 

[ChileanTaco]

An update on his behavior:
He is (still) awake for some time during morning, and during evening. Behaves during morning just like he would come out on normal days, but then does not do so of course.
Sleepy to really sleeping during the day.
He has not left his cave.
(Generally similar to his first brumation regarding him being more tired, but not being completely sleeping for days. Maybe slight difference with being normally awake during morning, but the cave he has chosen this time is a different one, more promoting propping the head up and looking out, whereas in the other one, he has to crawl about half a body length to look out which he sometimes did during brumation, but he did so more during the day, noon to early afternoon.)

 

[Sue E.]

An update on his behavior:
He is (still) awake for some time during morning, and during evening. Behaves during morning just like he would come out on normal days, but then does not do so of course.
Sleepy to really sleeping during the day.
He has not left his cave.
(Generally similar to his first brumation regarding him being more tired, but not being completely sleeping for days. Maybe slight difference with being normally awake during morning, but the cave he has chosen this time is a different one, more promoting propping the head up and looking out, whereas in the other one, he has to crawl about half a body length to look out which he sometimes did during brumation, but he did so more during the day, noon to early afternoon.)

Mine is doing that too...preferring the cool side, sleepy but not fully asleep, going to bed before lights out. Its pretty cold outside here again but his tank temps have not been affected by the outside temps.

 

[ChileanTaco]

Here it's super warm - room temp without heating is still around 26 °C (normally in winter goes to something around 22 °C), outside temperature is reliably above 30 °C still, will drop in winter usually to not less than 20 °C. (So generally, we have very mild temperatures here all year long, but also very hot summers.)

Realistically, the tank temperature has dropped a tiny bit w.r.t. the hottest months, but what likely had triggered his brumation is the shorter daylight length. His enclosure is directly in a corner of two windows, room has two walls made of glass (it's a bit like a winter garden), so he sees clearly what is going on outside. He also otherwise reacts very much to when we have exceptionally a cloudy day.
Generally, I have the impression that what he reacts to very much are changes, and not absolute things. It is still so warm I could take him on the balcony for hours, but the fact of it being a tiny bit cooler and the daylight length significantly shorter makes him prepare for winter.


Let's see how Taco will behave after this, his second brumation.
After his first, he was just somewhat more active, and started to pooping out sperm plugs from time to time, but there was no head bobbing, no push-ups, no black beard, no territorial or aggressive behavior at all and also nothing related to mating like simulating mating.

 

[Sue E.]

Oh, that explains it! It has been very cloudy here and gloomy. Kai cant see out a window, but he definitely can notice that its not as beight in the room as on a sunny day!

 

[ChileanTaco]

@Sue E.
Quite sure! Days are here always (!) sunny by human standards, so like "never having to call of an outdoor activity or being sad it's not perfect weather for this or that", no "need a jacket days", but sometimes (less than a day a month) it is a bit overcast for some hours (we live right at the oceanfront, no rain here in the Atacama, but a bit of haze can happen from time to time). He immediately reacts to this.

 

[Chris.]

Even though mine are both awake, there are days when it's cooler outside and they will stay tucked away or just not be active at all. Their tanks will only be like 0.5 or 1°C cooler than normal but that seems to throw them off a bit right now....

 

[ChileanTaco]

@Chris.
Absolutely my experience. Weirdly, when a lamp burns out and I might only see so after a few hours (burned out during the day while nobody was at home, must have been at least a while as dome is already cold), the behavior is differently: Basking under the remaining basking lamp (we have 2), but once a human approaches, looking back and forth at the human and the lamp, knowing that a human can fix it.