Brumation?

[ZEKE]

i think Fluffy our bearded dragon is going in to hibernation or brumation or somethin. he has been sleeping under the upside down basket that his basking spot is on top of for the last week or so. what do i need to know?

i read that i need to make sure he poops and doesnt have food in his stomach before he goes to sleep or else the food will rot in his stomach and cause problems. and that i should also offer him water through a dropper once a week so he doesnt get dehydrated.

i also read that i should make him a dark place to sleep and i should cool his cage temperature down to 70 and then turn his lights off.

is all this right? what else do i need to know? he has never done this before.

 

[Kharnifex]

lol, honestly i had no idea beardies brumated.

but it sounds like your trying to hibrenate him. for brumation, just slow down the feeding and let em sleep more. maybe lower the amount of time the lights are on. i don't think you'll need to force feed him water, that'd just be annoying if i were sleepy.

 

[ZEKE]

okay, i kinda thought that sounded like trying to hibernate. i got that info from people on septiczone. i came here and asked because the people here seem to give out better info.

right now we havent done anything and he is sleeping a lot.

so ill just change the time for his lights from 9am-9pm to 10am-8pm? how can i do that? he is in a main traffic area of our house that is bright from sunrise (it has a lot of windows that the sun shines in through) till late at night.

and should i offer him food whenever he is awake? i would think if he had food in his stomach that he wouldnt go to sleep before basking and digesting it.

 

[mushman]

From what i've read Beardies don't usually brumate until later in the year but if the general opinion is brumation, they are supposed to brumate for 6-8 weeks max. (again just from what I've read) To adjust the lighting just cover your tank where the light shines in and throw a vacation timer on the lamps. Cardboard has 1000 uses

 

[Kharnifex]

yea, for real, give him food and water, the stomach rotting thing is only for heavy hibernation. i honestly don't believe your beardie would ever slow his metabolism enough to fail at digesting any size meal. if he's got a gut full of food, he will bask.

 

[DaveDragon]

Here's a great article on Brumation. I need to review it, ours seem to be slowing down too.

http://www.beardeddragon.org/articles/brumation/

 

[ZEKE]

here is what i found about it. i dono how reliable this source is though.

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ill look at that link Dave. thanks.