Brumation - Who, What, Why, When and Where?!

[BobNTed]

Really interesting topic

My guys are doing something similar. They both seem to be sleeping all the time (or a lot of the time) in the cold ends, normally in a shaded part. 1 seems to be eating fine, whereas the other seems to only want hoppers and will turn her scaley little nose up at anything that is green or wriggles rather than hops.

It's been particular warm recently and been keeping their temps normal, and it is still relatively warm.

Oh and they are only about 6 months or so. They're both in good health (according to vets). Any ideas on what it is?

[rick01]

Unless you're having a long spell of cold weather I wouldn't expect this behaviour now. I would be getting a fecal float done as an overload of coccidia and/or pinworm will have this effect.
Have you re-checked your temps, if these have slipped back a little this can also cause constant drowsiness.

Rick

[Sydnie]

Originally Posted by Roblea87

Hello, your post about brumation made me feel a little better but I'm still a little worried. You mention it is uncommon with Beardies that are still young. My beardie is just over 12 months old and these past two weeks has become very lazy and uninterested in food. He does, however, still get up to go for the occassional drink. He is not climbing up onto his favourite basking spot during the day, he just lies in his sleeping spot and insists on sleeping during the day (the most he will do is open one eye to look at you if you go to check him out). I'm inclined to believe this is the beginning of his brumation but what do you think?

Any feedback would be great, thanks

Roblea87

I was so worried about litttle sydnie he had had a mouth infection but still was being lazy and not eating all the signs of brumation. but he is only over a year old. Just come back from a week end away (my friend looked after him didnt leave him to starve ) and when I looked at him I thought wtf then realised his skin was peeling! never felt so releieved. He was ok! And he was very happy in the bath I gave him didnt want to get out! He looks funny bless him but at least I know he will be back to himself soon-hope this helps xx

[Remerezz]

My beardies, Sebastian and Pandora, do this every year. In fact Sebastian hides if it is overcast or rains! I have never worried about it because he more than makes up for it later! Little...

Good to make people aware though

D

[SpeckledGecko]

i dnt even keep beardies but that was a very
interesting read. im sure this info will be useful
to many people.

[Sydnie]

mine is just having his second, now what to expect this time. Gave him a bath yesturday and he perked up, came home today and he looked so funny all peeling off his face, a warm bath and I pulled it away and the watr seemed to loosen more off and i stripped some off his back (I know not supposed to) left him to soak put him back in viv then gave him 4 locust and dont know what i did right he has been jumping round all night!

[Mia]

Good thread.

[windymiller]

Great thread and a good read. When I did a search for more info I came across this article which goes into a little more detail so I thought I'd post a link seeing as there are quite a few worried "Brumate Virgins" at the moment posting with concerns...

http://www.exclusivedragons.com/Brumation.html

Hope it helps...

windy

[Antw23uk]

An interesting article, thanks for posting. My beardie brumates every year and she is dead to the world for a few months ... its lovely

[Jeffers3]

This is a very interesting article, but there's a few things I either don't understand, or I'm missing something...

If you decide to induce brumation, as I understand it, this can be done by changing the circadian rythmn - ie lowering the amount of light. Then, the temps can be lowered to reduce the metabolism further.

As far as I can tell, unless this is done, there is no "trigger" for brumation, so it shouldn't occur. Unless the ambient light levels in the room are able to change enough to affect light levels in the viv, I don't see how brumation can happen due to seaonal changes. Also, I suspect that most people will have lights on in the house anyway when it gets dark.

Also, I use a heater and a thermostat, so the temps are constant (or reasonably so). They do drop at night, but the temperature in our house doesn't change that much during winter.

Other reasons for brumation that I've seen include air pressure changes. Unfortunately, air pressure changes during summer and winter and the air temperature is only partially responsible directly on the pressure (temperature gradients are also important, not just absolute temp).

I've read things in this thread that brumation should occur in "winter" and that it's "too late" to induce brumation. Surely, this is an artificial concept when we are controlling the heating and lighting conditions? If they were being kept outside, it would make sense, but the viv has it's own "climate" and is even inside another "climate" provided by the room it's in.

I've also read in places that bearded dragons have a "body clock" that knows when it is winter. If they were all born in or around the same month, that may be possible (but unlikely in artificial climate conditions). However, they are all captive bred in this country and are born throughout the year. Also, if they had this amazing body clock, they would brumate during the Northern hemisphere summer!

Looking at the above, it seems to me that the most likely cause of non-deliberately induced brumation must be the temperature drop in the viv at night, maybe assisted by subtle light level cues. I'm not, however, very convinced by the light levels as a cause, as they are pretty stable.

One thing that nobody seems to have mentioned (although I may have missed it - there's a lot of posts!), is that UV lights drop in intensity over time. I change mine every 6 months, but could this be the missing trigger? Maybe, it's part of the picture only and that it is during winter that the drop in UV intensity, coupled to a night-time temp change, is responsible?

Anyway, sorry for the long post. It's the result of another discussion I was having on here that I've been thinking about overnight!