Worried about my black soil

[Mitch_89]

The last two days my black soil bearded dragon wont come out of his cave of a morning so i reach in and pull him out he is stone cold his heat light turns on around 8 but i wake at 9 and he still stays in the cave and wont make a effort to come out and get heated... the tank falls to around 22 degrees before i go to bed is this too cold

 

[Fireflyshuffle]

Is yours adult, or hatchling? Hes naturally going to cool regardless of what we do in captivity, he still knows whats going on outside. Just keep the heat up if you dont want him going to sleep.

 

[CodeRed]

It wants to brumate, so let it.

 

[Mitch_89]

Hes two years old so what temperature can the tank drop to before it will hurt him coz he was like ice this morning

 

[J-A-X]

as CodeRed and shnakey have said, let him, ......it is a natural thing for them to do, but it does worry us the first time they do it, wondering if they are ok, will they wake up .......do some research on brumation, its amazing
my black soils were only 6 months old last winter, and even with heating my male 'went down' early June slept for 4 months, but the girl stayed awake til early Oct, then slept for 6 weeks, This year,(18 months old) he has disappeared (last week), she's still running amok, have some faith in mother nature, she's been getting right a heck of a lot longer that we have LOL

 

[Mitch_89]

Cool thanks guys so there is no specific temperature it has to be last night the cage went down to 18 degrees c will he still be all good

 

[CodeRed]

18 degC is fine. They will handle much lower than that

 

[Mitch_89]

ok i did some reseach one more thing tho if he does sleep does he still need feeding and stuff and should i turn his basking light off and his uv fluro off until he comes out of his cave

 

[J-A-X]

i don't bother with food once i'm certain they are brumating, and they wont eat if they are brumating because they cant digest and it can rot in their gut and kill them, but i still change their water daily, and i have seen them come out, quick drink and even a bath, then back into hiding, i leave heating and lighting as normal, as i have mine on sand and they bury themselves,but leave the top of their heads at ground level, and it gets down to 1-2c here in the Adelaide Hills and i figure they wouldn't be exposed to that extreme in their natural environment....

 

[Mitch_89]

ok thanks thats a really big help i might whack a bit more sand in coz just cleaned it out and i ran out so its probably not deep enough for him to bury... and thats good about the feeding thing coz i was guna let him smash a heap of crickets so thats a no no .... oh and this morning he looks kinda puffy and fat is that the way they go

 

[J-A-X]

if he wants to eat, let him, he needs the extra weight in order to survive a long brumation, he 'knows' when he needs to stop eating and will refuse food. my female is still eating, he's well and truely out for the count,

 

[Mitch_89]

OK thanks for your help