This will be Knox's first brumation, as well as mine (he's my first Beardie).
He was Born last May, 2018, and its now October 2019 so around 1.5 years old roughly.
He's been lethargic for the last month, and i was beginning to suspect he was getting ready to brumate because he started to refuse his BSFL, and would only eat super worms, and his grub pie. I thought at first it may be a hunger strike, so i switched him to supers every other day as many as he could eat.
Well, he finally laid down 2 days ago in his dig box (Tupperware with large scraps of felt for him to lay on) and he buried himself in deep with only his head showing and he hasn't moved in 2 days. I just started to think about it and before he laid down, he had a monster meal, like 20+ Supers in one sitting, and now I'm worried that its going to rot in his stomach while he slumbers.
This is our first time going through the process, so I'm not entirely sure what i should do?
Right now i have his UVB light turned off, his extra ambient light turned off, with only his heat lamp on to keep the temps warm while he sleeps. He isn't always sleeping and hell sometimes open his eyes as i walk by, but he hasn't tried to move in 2 days.
Any and all help would be greatly appreciated, and welcomed! Thanks guys!
I would run all your lights as usual w/ the exception of the extra ambient light??? what is that? And yes he sounds like he is doing the brumation thing -- I would get him out in the next week weigh him and give him a bath see if he will drink --- then put him back in the tank and see what he does -- he may go bask its hard to say --- you want to keep track of his weight to make sure hes not losing -- he should sustain it ---
Karrie
The extra ambient light i have is a sunblaster 6400K grow light i use to add more light to his tank, and help provide more of a full spectrum lighting in the tank. But in reality it just adds more light to the enclosure. If you look in my past posts on here, i had a long discussion on it with a few other notable BeardedDragon.org users.
I do keep track of his weight, so i will take him out sometime this week to bath him, and i will check his weight then.
Do i need to be overly concerned with the giant meal still in his belly? Or will he digest that as he goes?
From what I've seen, he will digest it but more slowly than normal. Take him out every few days and offer some water and give him time to go if he needs to. He will likely pass most of the meal in the next few weeks. I haven't seen meals at the beginning of brumation cause much problem. They'll wake up and go if need be but a little encouragement via hydration and a little bit of interaction may help things along.
They go into brumation at different levels. It varies between dragons and can vary year to year. Sometimes they will sleep for a bit, wake up, then go back to sleep. Sometimes they will sleep for a long period of time. Sometimes they just slow down a bit and eat less for a while.