Can someone please explain the Tegu hibernation process?

[Reptar_the_Red_Tegu]

Hey everyone,
A few months ago I got a 5 month old Red Tegu, he's awesome! Named him Reptar, from the show Rugrats back in the day, haha.

In my reptile history, I have only had non-hibernating lizards, so I want to make sure I am prepared for this.

- Do all Red Tegu's hibernate? If so when? How long do they stay under for?
- If you do not plan on breeding them, do you have to let them hibernate? What is best?


I am COMPLETELY clueless on the hibernation cycle and the guy I got him from never told me anything about this, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

- Mike (and Reptar thanks you too =)

 

[argus333]

im not a tegu expert but have owed them for many yrs im sure bobby or dave dragon can do better on this, but ill take a stab. yes most tegus hibernate in the wid but if u want one just as a pet he does not need to hibernate to be happy if he does not go down he will grow faster. they usually go down for roughly 6 months if u want to breed hibernation is the way to go although ive herd of them breeding with no hibernation or just going to a slow down phase. i bought a pair of reds 2 yrs ago and hibernate them i keep them outside from may through oct. and they do it on there own i do not handle them really to much plus when they go down its less to feed and easier to take care of. i also have a lone blk. and white tegu who also goes down from oct --- april. in april i put the heat light on for 4 hrs 2 weeks 6 hrs 2 weeks then 8 hrs 2 weeks then 10 hrs a day and there up and eating by that point. good luck

 

[DaveDragon]

This explains it best. http://tegutalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=826

 

[JohnMatthew]

As for "letting" then hibernate, I'd like to see someone stop a tegu from doing what they want.. You can try to coax them out of hibernating by keeping lights and heat going but in the end if they want to go down, they will go down. Boon goes down when we're still getting daytime temps in the 90s :shock: . Your best bet is to just go with the flow when it comes to hibernating. Good luck!