Winter slow down ???

[Missi]

I notice a bunch of posts about their beardies seeming to slow down during the winter .

Can someone tell me what can be expected if they decide to slow down for the winter?

 

[Nathan1995]

Hi Missi, during the winter beardies will go into something called brumation, which is kind of like a hibernation, except they do not go into a deep sleep. During brumation they will slow down all bodily functions, meaning that they won't have to eat and won't be anywhere near as active, don't be alarmed if they sleep (or at least are lazy) for 2 or 3 months.

They do this due to evolution as it would be harder for them to survive due to less food and temperatures in the winter months. You will have to hydrate them once ever week or 2 though (they'd normally sleep somewhere moist and absorb moisture through their vent) but as this isn't possible a quick bath or drink will do every so often.

 

[Missi]

Jim is only 6 months old ( but he is big , 21 in long and 475g last time I weighed him over a week ago ) so I didn't think he would brumate .

But I have noticed that he is eating less in his live feeders , this order of crickets were much larger in size so I would expect him to eat a few less . But over the last week he is only eating about half of what he normally would with the smaller crickets , but again I have introduced supers to his diet also ( which he loves).

He is still basking all the time and not going over to the cool side or in his cave to sleep . So I was wondering if there was a sort of slow down but not brumation for younger beardies .

Maybe I am just overreacting and worrying for nothing .

( his temps are good avg 105-110 on basking spot measured with temp gun . Reptisun 10.0 tube inside tank is only 4 months old . He gets greens every day which he will finish most days . Calcuim 5 times a week and vitamins twice a week ,on one meal a day . )

 

[Nathan1995]

Your setup sounds good, and wow he's a huge boy if he's only 6 months!! I've got a 19 month old who's just reached 21inches haha.

And the same 19 year old went through what you may be experiencing last year, he wasn't old enough to fully brumate so kind of slowed down, got really lazy, didn't eat for about 2 months.

Every beardie owner goes through the worrying phase first time during brumation haha, I think you're fine, although, I might consider turning his basking temps down a bit, for adults basking would normally be around 95F, but then again Jim sounds like he's enjoying the temps if he's not moving away to the cool side. Just a thought.

Sounds like you're all good!

 

[Missi]

Your setup sounds good, and wow he's a huge boy if he's only 6 months!! I've got a 19 month old who's just reached 21inches haha.

I sometimes think the breeder messed up with his birthday since he is so big. But then I remember that he was about 8 inches when we got him at 10 weeks old . :lol: