Tegu possibly hibernating under water bowl

[Russ Welch]

My Tegu has been coming out less and less on his own lately. The only problem is I have to disturb him quite frequently. His favorite place is under his big stone waterbowl. Ive moved the bowl location 3 times just to make sure. And wherever that bowl is, he will dig under it and make a burrow. Which is fine til I have to clean/refill the water bowl. Then he gets disturbed everytime. Because as soon as the bowl is gone so is the entire top of his burrow so I just see him dug down under it wrapped in a circle.


At first he'd his and be jumpy. Now he lays there just breathing heavy. A few mintutes after I remove the bowl he comes out and lays in his basking spot. So I dont know if he is hibernating or trying and im disturbing him or what.

I aldo offered a mouse to him last week, which normally he loves but he just licked it and sniffed around it a bit and didn't touch it. So I thought he could be hibernating or getting ready too. But I dont know if im messing it up too much by changing his water bowl or what?
Also I just had to change it and hes looking pretty skinny compared to normal. And im torn between offering him more food. Because I dont know if he'd eat it then try to hibernate which could be deadly.
any advice for this situation is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[marydd]

My tegu is eating less right now. I would still offer food if he is still coming out. If you are worried about disturbing him leave that water bowl empty in the enclosure and put a seperate water dish for him to drink from. I think if it bothered him enough he would stop digging under it though.