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Question regarding hibernation.

Skeetzy

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How long into hibernation is it okay to try and start waking up your tegu? From what I understand the best way to do this is to, in my case, turn the lights back on, and slowly bump the temps and daytime hours back up. My guy has been down for over two months, almost a full month with no lights. I understand they can go down for up to 7 months though. I just wish I could have him up and about.
 

james.w

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Why not just leave him alone if he wants to hibernate. He will wake up when he is ready.
 

Skeetzy

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I didn't post asking for an opinion, which you seem to throw out in every thread. I posted asking when it's okay to start warming him back up.

If you're not gonna answer my question, then keep your opinion elsewhere.
 

james.w

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I did answer your question. If you want a specific answer, why not tell us what answer you want and then we will know what to tell you. It is ok to warm him up when he wakes up, like I said in my first post, on his terms.
 

Skeetzy

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No you didn't. You suggested what I should do with MY animal. I didn't ask if it's okay to try and wake him up, I asked how long into it I can try and warm him up. Basically asking if 2 months is too early, because I clearly plan on trying. If I wanted to leave it up to him, I wouldn't have posted a thread.

I've read, many times, that it is okay to keep them from hibernating, so how could it harm them any trying to wake them up, simply by simulating the end of winter?
 

james.w

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Anybody that tells you when it is ok to try and wake your tegu up, is just taking guesses. As far as simulating the end of winter, I had two tegus in one cage, temps and lighting kept on and one went down and the other didn't.
 

Skeetzy

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Which in a way answers my question. Yes, it is okay to turn the lights back on and try to wake him up naturally. If he doesn't come out, oh well, no harm done. If he does, then I'm ecstatic for finally having a chance to see my tegu.
 

james.w

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Possibly, it is also possible the increase in temps could boost his metabolism and cause him to burn through his fat reserves.
 

Bubblz Calhoun

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Why,.. why, why would you risk your tegus health trying to bring it out of hibernation when it's obviously not ready yet? When it's time and ready,.. it'll wake up and come out, until then just let it be.
 

Roadkill

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Various tegus hibernate for various lengths of times, even in the same environment. Trying to bring your tegu out of hibernation is not really that dangerous (except if you promote certain active behaviours but don't provide the environment to support those behaviours), even if they are warmed up and not yet out of the hibernation state, they won't burn up their energy stores super quick and die - this would also be assuming you wouldn't be trying to feed the animal at this time (which I can't understand why someone would do this......). Fully active tegus still physiologically "hibernating" will lose some weight, but nowhere near the same as a resting tegu in a fully "active" physiological state. There's a far greater risk trying to force your tegu to hibernate for longer periods that they aren't prepared for. And I'm fairly certain I'm not just guessing on this....
 

james.w

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You saying you are "fairly certain" makes me not take what you are saying to serious. Either you know what you are talking about or don't. Have you done much research (hands on) to come to this conclusion?
 

Roadkill

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I'd like to believe I know what I'm talking about, but I'm humble enough to admit I can be wrong. As for if I've done much hands on research to come to my conclusion, that would depend on what you call "much".
 

james.w

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I can appreciate that response. I guess "much" can be interpreted to be any amount. How many tegus have you woken up that were hibernating?
 

Roadkill

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To be honest, I cannot give a concrete number as to how many I have woken up that were hibernating, I haven't kept track of that. All I can say is that I spent about 10 years researching specifically hibernation in tegus, primarily from a physiological standpoint, most of those years in the lab doing things like forcing tegus in and out of hibernation, but also several years in Brasil recording the process from a more natural standpoint. I co-authored the chapter "Overwintering in Tegu Lizards" for the book "Life in the Cold: Evolution, Mechanisms, Adaptation, and Application" for the 12th International Hibernation Symposium in 2004. Perhaps you've read it?
 

james.w

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I have not read it, but I can take your posts a lot more serious now though.
 

Skeetzy

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Mine is very tiny right now. Went under Sept 11th, never even got a chance to measure him. I've attached a picture for some size reference. The log is only about a hand size across. It somewhat worries me him going under that size for a long time. I'll be starting a short 8 hour day tomorrow, bumping it up an hour every 3/4 days, the same way I brought him to no lights on. If it doesn't work in like two weeks I'll bring it back down and let him stay under another few months.
 

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Roadkill

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I'm not sure how that would affect the tegu, might work for a rapid emergence. However, keep in mind several things: for one, baby tegus still hibernate in the wild, they aren't that large before they start preparing to hibernate so yours may not be in that much of a dire situation. For another, if you're trying to replicate a natural increase in photoperiod, that would be way off (however, I understand your worry and desire to bring it out of hibernation asap). I can't even think how far south a population would have to be to even experience an 8 hour day (or whether there's tegu populations there)....but as a reference, just below the tropics (so about central South America) the shortest day in winter is only different from the longest day in summer by about 2-3 hours, or in other words, the shortest day is about 10.5-11 hours light. And at that lattitude, the natural change in photoperiod is about 1-2 minutes a day. Not saying you're going to endanger your tegu, just saying it's hard to say how such a drastic change will affect it. All this being said, the one thing I can add with greater certainty is if your tegu is kept in a room with a window to the outside, the light streaming in from your window is a far greater signal to your tegu than anything you are artificially creating in the room. Kind of like trying to talk on your cell phone (set on a rather quiet volume) while at a rock concert. That signal from the window is more intense, more complex, more real than that from any lightbulbs you'll be using, and so you may have strong influence working against you.
 

Skeetzy

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That's exactly some of the info I was looking for. I'll take that all into consideration with what I do. I appreciate you sharing the knowledge. I wish I had the opportunity to do that research.

Here's another question for you. How long do they hibernate in the wild/how long is their winter? Been trying to Google it for a few days, but I can't seem to find much.
 

Roadkill

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That is kind of a difficult question to answer because there really isn't a simple answer to it. For one, I would say it highly depends on what region they're in and I really only have indepth knowledge of a small area. For another, it depends on what you want to call hibernation. Where I was, hibernation averaged about 4-5 months. With that being said, some individuals would pretty much "sleep" the entire period, while other individuals definitely had a "sleep" period that was at max a couple of weeks and then spend the rest of the winter basically basking nearly everyday but then going back to sleep for most of the day. Interestingly though, about the only time of the year that tegus were physiologically "fully active" was for about 3-4 months during breeding season till about when the eggs would hatch. The rest of the year they were either hibernating or gradually depressing their metabolism in preparation for hibernation. I would think most populations further south probably would have had longer hibernation seasons, and those closer to the equator would have shorter, however it seems that hibernation in tegus isn't so much a response to cooler temperatures as it is a response to a season of few resources (I'm not saying that colder temperatures don't drive them to hibernate, but that ultimately the real reason behind the hibernation season is there's little food or water available during this period). So it's quite possible that some populations may not hibernate as long as predicted because of more favourable conditions. For example, one of my colleagues has told me that there's evidently a population of tegus far to the south of where I was doing my research that supposedly don't hibernate at all.
 

BatGirl1

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Niles has been flatly refusing any type of food since october yet still comes to the warm side to bask almost on a daily basis.I occasionally offer various foods because it makes me nervous that he is not 'sleeping soundly '...I'm afraid of him using up his reserves.yet he will not touch a thing.i have water available and also spray him when he's out.hopefully this 'basking during hibernation ' is normal and he'll resume eating at the appropriate time (i have read march?)

Sent from my ZTE-Z990G using Tapatalk 2
 

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