When does brumation start

Is your dragon showing signs of brumation during a season other than winter? Normally this is not problematic and you can allow your dragon to go into brumation. However, sometimes warm-weather brumation is a sign that something else is going on. It could be caused by:. Contact your vet if you ever notice any of the following symptoms in your bearded dragon, regardless of whether you think she is going into brumation:.

Some of these signs, like lethargy and loss of appetite, are characteristic of brumation. But some are not. When your bearded dragon initially goes into brumation, there are signs to look out for.

You may check on her and see her staring wide-eyed back at you, or she may just wander out of her hiding spot and begin crawling around her terrarium in search of food. Keep in mind that your dragon may take several days to get back into his old routine. Gradually adjust his lighting back to normal and offer his regular meals, and just be patient as he wakes up. If at any point you feel concerned or notice anything abnormal, reach out to your vet.

If you have questions or feedback, we'd love to hear from you! Please email us at [email protected]. What it all comes down to is creating a happy and healthy life for your pets and ours. We know how much you love your Dragon and we want to make it easy to show how much you care.

Help them feel a little more like the predator they were born to be. Shop Now. What Is Brumation? Your bearded dragon may brumate: Once a year every year, during the current cold season. Every other year or every few years, predictably or unpredictably. Only once in her lifetime.

Bearded Dragon Brumation Signs How do you know if your bearded dragon is about to go into brumation? This means making the tank cooler to mimic Australian desert winter conditions.

If you notice that your Dragon is losing weight rapidly or they have lost way more than grams then you may want to consider consulting your Vet so they can take a closer look and give you their opinion. After the brumation period is over and you notice that they are fully awake you can do a few things to help them regain their strength, freshen up and ultimately get back to their old self again. The first thing you should do is to make sure they have some fresh water so they can hydrate.

Your Dragon might not be hungry as soon as they wake up but they will often want to drink so making sure they at least have some water is a must. One of the first things you can do is give your Bearded Dragon a bath.

It will also help your Dragon to top up their hydration levels after a long period of rest. Remember to make sure that you dry them thoroughly as failure to do this can encourage fungus. You might want to consider giving them a spell under the basking lamp as this will ensure they will dry properly.

At this point, you should start to turn on the basking lamp and increase the amount of hours you have the UVB lighting on in the tank. Some people just switch the basking lamp to the maximum recommended temperature and have the UVB light on for the maximum amount of hours per day right from the word go.

I would actually recommend increasing the temperature and hours of exposure over a number of days to replicate what they would experience in the wild but this will depend on how fast your Dragon wakes and how fast they are demanding food. The sooner they are wanting food, the sooner you should look to get the temperature in the tank back to normal. You can do something similar to what you did when you decrease the temperature and UVB light for brumation but obviously do it in reverse.

Ultimately which option you choose is up to you but you need to start giving them heat and UVB exposure right away. Once you have the temperature in the tank to the required level then you can start to offer food to your Dragon.

It may take several days for them to get their full appetite back and if you are increasing the temperature and hours of light per day then this is good because if they eat a lot of food they will need to be able to bask in order to digest the meal properly. You can also give your Dragon fresh veggies daily so that they have food in their tank whenever they feel a little hungry and this will also help to re-hydrate them as well. It also could be that your Dragon is simply not feeling well and they are sluggish and have a lack of appetite though some illness or infection.

If you suspect this at all you should contact your Vet at once to get them checked over. Trying to intervene will usually only either confuse your Dragon or prolong the brumation period. The most common food for bearded dragons are crickets and this often leads to owners having many questions regarding the crickets they are feeding their beardie. For this reason, we have put together a straightforward and easy-to-follow guide that covers in detail the If you know what to look for, you can tell a lot by the color of your bearded dragon.

The color of your bearded As diet and hydration is so important to bearded dragons, so many owners understandably have lots of questions regarding drinking and water. Total Bearded Dragon is a website that is dedicated to helping Bearded Dragon owners to care for and understand their Dragons with detailed, straight forward and actionable advice.

This site is owned and operated by Total Bearded Dragon. Total Bearded Dragon is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon. Some water may still be required and this is often done by misting spraying the reptile with water. This is much less intrusive than bathing during a heavy brumation period.

The main elements of care during brumation are keeping a check, feeding and hydration. If the bearded dragon has gone into a deep sleep then it can be checked every couple of days with minimal disturbance. If it is in a deep brumation then some weight will be lost. Keep a watch on its condition to ensure it is not too much. Bearded dragons can be weighed during brumation if there are health concerns. However, normally visual inspection is sufficient. Weigh the bearded dragon before brumation starts.

Periodical weighing during brumation will provide a way to track condition. If the bearded dragon has chosen to sleep in a burrow then the entire burrow can be weighed with the bearded dragon and subtract the weight of the burrow to determine the bearded dragons weight. Chances are that during brumation a bearded dragon will not want to eat.

Even if it does not go into a deep sleep and appears for all intents normal, it may reduce or stop its eating for a while during winter months.

Observation is also needed for bearded dragons that have gone into a partial brumation. With environments that are not setup for winter temperatures their metabolism may not have dropped sufficiently to endure brumation.

It is best to choose either providing winter or summer temperature and lighting cycles, not stopping and starting or something in between. Never force a brumating bearded dragon to eat. If it does eat, then ensure that it has normal heat and lighting levels available to digest for some hours after eating. This is a good reason to simply provide good brumating conditions rather than leave it with confusing cues as to whether it is winter and it should sleep or not by not adjusting environment heating and lighting.

Hydration is critical for good health. Maintaining the environment humidity will assist but other means of providing fluid may be required. Bathing during full brumation is not required and likely to be quite disruptive to the bearded dragon. If additional fluids are required then a light misting would be a better option and for the more experienced, gently opening the mouth and lightly misting the tongue should be enough.

Alternatively a syringe can be used to put a few drops on the bearded dragons tongue. If the bearded dragon is in full brumation it will not need waking to be fed. However, if the bearded dragon is in a light brumation then there may be times it seeks food. Once fed, it must be provided with hours of daytime temperature and lighting for digestion. When a bearded dragon is coming out of brumation it is exciting and relieving all at once. Brumation will come to an end when the bearded dragon picks up on the days becoming longer and warmer.

If it has gone into full brumation sleeping it will come out from hiding to bask and its appetite will pick up. Once the bearded dragon has warmed up and is basking, it can be provided with food. It requires hours of heat and UVB to digest the food afterwards. Sometimes they can pop out from brumation and go back to it, even after a day or two awake. This is less likely to occur if the temperature and lighting is set appropriately. It might take a little while for a bearded dragons appetite to come back after brumation.

After that, a phone call to the vets office to ask their opinion would be useful. Sometimes there may be a need to wake a bearded dragon from brumation, such as if it is brumating more than 4 months. Waking some bearded dragons from brumation can be difficult, however here are 3 simple steps on how to wake a bearded dragon from brumation :. Set the temperatures and lighting back to summer cycle.

Duration of light and the temperature are keys to brumation. Take the bearded dragon out into the sunlight. Provide a warm bath. Only feed bearded dragons that are warmed up and hydrated.

Post on how to rehydrate bearded dragons quickly. As spring is about to arrive, change the temperatures to be warmer and lighting cycles to be longer replicating the weather changing. However, there are times they might come out for a few days and then go straight back to brumating. Generally, once they are back out basking you can expect it is over. Normal conditions should be provided once they come out and start basking.

Some bearded dragons, mostly males, may become suddenly aggressive a short time after brumation. This is likely to be getting ready for breeding season. More on that in aggressive bearded dragons.

Bearded dragons can wake during brumation, it depends on how deep the brumation is. It is quite normal to wake up, perhaps for a day or more and then go back to sleep. Share your story of your bearded dragons brumation with us. Were you worried? Bearded Dragons Drink Water 5 rehydration techniques.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Hi Stacy, thank you so much for this article was extremely helpful! As it seems like many other people who commented I had no idea about brumation and, I have a I have given him several baths and massaged his belly, tried giving him squash and leeks to promote a bowel movement and to no avail.

Is it very important for him to have a bowel movement before going into brumation? Or even during brumation? Other than that he seems healthy. His beard tends to be on the darker side quite often. Thank you again for this amazing article! Has he had a movement since? I have a pretty in depth article on impaction you can check out. Until then, wake him up once a day for a warm soak until he goes to the bathroom.

I am a new beardie mom. Hubby gave me Merlin for Christmas. There is no screen under it. I also have a heat light that sits on a metal screen on top, in front of the UVB. The rest of the top is wood.

The basking platform is about degrees and the lower part of the enclosure is around 72 degrees. I have Excavator Clay in there but not much. Just an inch or so on top, bottom, sides, and back wall.

Is this a suitable hide? Please forgive me for so many questions! I am having about almost the same issues as KR is. My beardie is about months and also on the larger side. I thought the same thing about the UVB bulb being an issue but we just got a whole new terrarium for Lizzy, with new lamps and all but still, the behavior went on.

She sleeps most of the day, waking up on and off. She was eating, peeling, and pooping so much I was starting to wonder if I was rich enough to own a beardie then one day it suddenly stopped. But the more I read about brumation, the more likely it seems to be a possibility, even down to the aggressiveness. I went to check on her and I lifted up her hiding rock she went to bite me which she has not done in a while!

Could he be sick or is this usual brumation behavior??? Would you mind running me through your lighting setup? Often times, baby bearded dragons can become sickly if they are not getting proper UVB exposure and their cage is too cold. Would you mind telling me what his basking spot temperature is? Also, what are you using for a basking light and UVB bulb?

If you live in the Southern Hemisphere he could be getting ready to brumate. I highly recommend you check out these two posts here to help make sure you have his lighting and diet on point!

Bearded Dragon Lighting Guide 2. Bearded Dragon Diet Guide. Im one of those owners that does worry about my boy Beardie Bruce 8 months old. He has been sleeping in his cave but I finally got him out to eat a little. He currently like the cooler side. I gave him a bath and let him walk around my apartment. He feel asleep under my coach and has been there for 3 days now.

I covered him with a lite blanket and check on him daily. This allows them to get moisture from the damp dirt. Question: Can I spray him with water daily or weekly or not? Thank you very, very much for your articles, especially this one. I had been recently petless my kitty passed so needing something to care for, I adopted him. I immediately started watching every video and reading every article about Beardies so that I could care for him as best as I could.

When I got him he had a bad eye and a fungus. The fungus is gone and the eye, well that will need to be gone too. My sister asked me if reptiles go through a cycle.

I googled and found your article on brumation. Thinking back this week, I noticed him curling up under wood in his vivarium. I will also continue giving him his bath every night. Plus I will continue reading your articles. Again, thank you for your articles.

I want to learn as much as possible in order to be the best mom for Bowser because he is pretty dang special. New beardie mom here.. My guy is about 7 mo old i got him when he was about 4 mo old..

I have read all of the articles on this site for knowledge and posts for support.. But it doesnt stop my worry.. He has grown and progressed greatly all this time.. But the last few days has bothered me.. He looks like he has lost weight.

He is wanting to sleep.. He is shedding twice now in 2 weeks.. He is easily aggravated.. And yesterday his poop seemed runny.. I know most of this sounds like brumation but with the way he looks today Im not sure if he should.. What i have done to help.. Is bath him daily if not every other day for 2 weeks think brumation I have handled him more.. Tried hand feeding him he seemed to like that before.

We got him a larger terrarium cause he was growing so quickly.. Any help or advise would be greatly appreciated..