trying to brumate?

[KendraA]

Wallace is a nine-month-old, 350-gram male beardie. Usually he's a big eater, friendly, active. His care and setup match all the recommendations on this site. His lights and temps haven't changed. Lately, he's been behaving strangely. It seems he might be trying to brumate, but his behaviors don't quite match up with what I've read on the subject.

He bumps his head on the glass often until I let him out--then he runs around the house from room to room. It seems he's trying to find a place to bed down, but when I give him cardboard box caves and other nesting materials, he ignores them. He goes willingly into brightly lit rooms rather than trying to stay in the dark. After a while he goes back to his cage and basks again. Sometimes he tries to bury his head under objects in his cage/dig into the tile floor, but when I tried putting him inside a dark box cave he came right out and started basking.

He's defecating normally every day in the bath. He's been eating fine until the last two days--he'll still eat some of his greens but he's being finicky about his roaches for the first time, as if he's distracted. I don't know what's going on with him! Puberty? Brumation?

 

[diamc]

It actually sounds more like puberty than brumation since he is so active, enjoying brightly lit rooms and not wanting to go to sleep in a hide or box. When they go through puberty, it can certainly affect their appetites since their hormones are going crazy.