Beardie hibernation?

[Armand]

when should i start cooling down my beardy's cage? at the moment its around 30 at the warm spot and roughly 25 at the cool..

[frillygirl]

We usually wait until late autumn/early winter. You can also be guided by your beardy - they know the weather is cooling down and gradually become less active and sleep most of the time. But - make sure that when you do decide to cool the cage down that your beardy hasn't eaten for a couple of weeks (otherwise the food can rot in their stomach).

[Armand]

oh ok thanks a heaps frillygirl.. so i presume i shouldnt feed him during brumation?

[frillygirl]

It depends how cold you are going to make your vivarium. Some people do continue to feed their beardies and don't cool the vivarium much.
But we actually turn off the heaters completely and don't feed them at all when they are brumating.

[Armand]

ok do they lose a lot of weight while brumating?

[frillygirl]

No not a lot. They slow down their whole bodies and mainly sleep - so they don't use much energy. But if your beardy is very young or skinny I probably wouldn't recommend brumation.

[reptalica]

Is there an actual need for me to cool my beardies enclosure down during the above months???? I can control the spot lamp which obviously in turn controls the temps and keep it quite warm in there.

Thoughts??

[frillygirl]

Hi reptalica,
It really depends what you have your beardies for. If you are breeding them then you definitely have to have a 'cool' season (otherwise they don't produce sperm as efficiently). Also, it is a natural thing for beardies to cool down in the wild - therefore if you keep them going all year round at high temps you may shorten their life span. Hope that helps

[reptalica]

Many thanks frillygirl.......cheers :-)

[Armand]

yeh thanks heaps frillygirl.. so basically what month would i be lowering their temps?

[JasonL]

Bearded Dragons will go into brumation themselves due to dropping night temps (you shouldn't heat them at night), I keep my bearded's heated all winter to almost max temps and offer food all winter, though often it is refused, I lower the amount of time these high temps are on for though. Summer heat from say 8 - 4pm, Winter heat from say 10 - 2pm. 90% of the dragons will brumate 100%, though some will come out for a week or two, have a small feed and return to brumating. Reptiles still come out in winter, to bask ect, they do not hibernate, in central south Australia, it still gets hot in the middle of winter, it just freezes to a icey frost at night.

[JasonL]

I lessen heating time according to external weather (night temps) and by the way the dragons are acting / eating, as I said, most dragons will go into brumation just off night temps.

[Armand]

ok thanks Jason.. what month should i drop the temps? well shorten the heat lamp..

[Armand]

oh and prior to bearded dragons.. does anyone know when i should drop the temps of my bhp?

[JasonL]

As long as your dragons have full weight ect, you can start to shorten day lengths now, BHP's are from the tropics, they have a much shorter winter, if you can call it a winter