First time owner here, I've had my guy for about two month now, which is about how old he is. I noticed hes been getting a little fatter, then the last 3 days or so he hasn't had as much of an appetite. I noticed he wasn't out and about today, checked his usual hidding spots and couldn't find him anywhere. I finally found him borrowed in the cool side of his enclosure, hes generally not much of a burrower. Is this when they generally start to brumate? Its still really hot here in Oklahoma and i figured it would be later into the year before something like this would start. Just trying to make sure so i'll leave him alone and let him do his thing. Thanks!
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Is my tegu entering brumation?
- Thread starter Jfrai
- Start date
It's been a long time since I've posted on this forum, but with the new operations I've been getting email updates and beings as this is my field of specialty....
From my research in wild tegus in Brasil, we uncovered that there were indications of "preparing" for brumation/hibernation far earlier than many expected. Shortly following the summer solstice we'd see progressive decreases in activity, food consumption, and basking, with progressive increase in the time spent sleeping, and whole days spent in their burrows, which results in a progressive decrease in metabolism for same state and temperature (for example, we'd measure metabolic correlates during sleep and say at 23 degrees Celsius that metabolism was high in December, lower in January, lower still in February, still lower in March, etc.).
From my research in wild tegus in Brasil, we uncovered that there were indications of "preparing" for brumation/hibernation far earlier than many expected. Shortly following the summer solstice we'd see progressive decreases in activity, food consumption, and basking, with progressive increase in the time spent sleeping, and whole days spent in their burrows, which results in a progressive decrease in metabolism for same state and temperature (for example, we'd measure metabolic correlates during sleep and say at 23 degrees Celsius that metabolism was high in December, lower in January, lower still in February, still lower in March, etc.).
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- 1,218
- Location
- Prescott, AZ
I think the preparations have begun!
