Hibernation Help

[tc5000]

My tegu is a male B&W, yearling about 35” who has a complete room that he lives in and free roam of the whole house when I am home. I am no expert; this is my first year with a Tegu but below are my observations and actions.

About six weeks ago he parked himself under the couch in the living room for a week and half. When I am home that room is about 70f maybe 75-78 when I'm out. I got tired of that so I pulled him out and put him in his room, ambient temp 75, warm side 85 and basking around 115. He retired to the coolest spot in the room under his favorite shelf. His basking spot is just out side this shelf. Right now and until he gets back to his earlier activity level I keep his basking lights on 24/7 so he can bask any time he wants. I have occasionally found him out basking between 11pm and 1am.

I was afraid to feed him due to reading stories about tegus hibernating on a full stomach then dieing when the food rots because they can't digest it in cool temps. I now believe that is not a concern as long as you keep the temps up.

After another 2-3 weeks on not seeing him I pulled him out from his favorite shelf. He was very cool, moving slowly, skinnier then ever, looking fairly dehydrated and had stuck shed on his tail. I soaked him for about an hour and then hit his tail with a heavy dose of Shedding Aid from Zoo-Med. I kept up with the Shedding Aid daily for about 5 days then on the next soak the stuck shed just peeled right away. I have tried other stuff in the past but I feel the shed aid worked the best. I am going to try to copy the ingredients and make my own at some point.

I first started feeding him every 3 days his favorite food, frozen thawed hoppers with a large side of green grapes. With this feeding scheduled I only saw him about every other day. I have now stepped up the feeding to a daily basis and he is putting on some serious weight. I think I am going to have to cut his portions back due to his low activity. Additionally I now see him out basking every day now, which is when I feed him.

Before he started hibernation he would wake up at around 2-4pm and by the time I got home at 5 he was cruising all around the house. I would feed him around 8-9 and he would slow down then retire for the night around 10-11. With all this exercise I fed him almost everything he could eat and he grew but did not get fat. Now that he has slowed down he is only out for an hour or so basking and only cruises the house once or twice a week. In the last few days he has started looking a little fat so I am thinking of upping the fruit and reducing the hoppers.

To attempt to prevent your tegu from hibernating you might try the fowling. You might not be able to get your tegu to chase crickets so you may offer him/her their favorite fruit and thawed pinkies. You may also want to soak him occasionally, once or twice a week. Remember not to use hot water only lukewarm to room temp water. Along with feeding him/her you defiantly want to keep his temps up and a light at night is defiantly a good idea. You have to convince him/her the temps will stay up and their food source is not going to disappear like his instincts are telling him. Remember you will probably not see their past activity but you should get more awake time out of him/her. That said, I have read that no mater what you do some individuals may not resume activity until spring. Hope this helps.

[Rick]

That is an excellent post. I have been lucky in the fact that the previous tegus I cared for never tried to hibernate. I just kept the temps stable year round and kept them well fed. From what I understood, from the owner whom I was tegu sitting for, his tegus had never attempted to hibernate.

The two recent tegus I have, who are still very much juveniles, have neither attempted to hibernate.

Rick

That is really an informative post. I do have a couple questions for anyone willing to answer. It appears that tegus do not require to hibernate, but is it better for them if they do?

My other question is relating to hibernation versus brumation. I have seem both terms used by several people and in a few books. What is the difference and why do some tegus prefer one over the other? Liz.

[Johelian]

As far as I have gathered, brumation tends to refer to a period of inactivity, whereas hibernation is complete dormancy for several months. Lizards like tegus will actually dig a burrow and hide themselves completely while they are in a deep sleep, rarely emerging; bearded dragons on the other hand will often hide under something but wont actually sleep all of the time; rather, their body clock will just slow down and they wont move much until the temperatures rise. I may be wrong, but this is what I have found

About hibernation and health; from experience, I really dont know. I know that they dont HAVE to hibernate, and they will grow faster ((but not neccesarily bigger)) if they arent "hibernated". I dont however know if it is healthier for them to hibernate...certainly thats what they would do in nature, and would grow more slowly as a result, so I can see the benefits of that, but I have no experience of it (this is my first winter and my tegu has already been stopped from hibernation sue to a course of meds I had to keep him awake for). Waking them up while they are hibernating isnt recommended.

TC500, thats similar to the methods I used to keep my tegu out of brumation for his medicine; I upped the temps to help him recover, and kept the lights on for around 12 hours. I have a heat mat on a thermostat in the cage so night time temps arent dropping at the mo, which is also handy.

[tc5000]

Again I am no expert but here what I have read and learned so far.

I have seen some arguments that Tegues need to hibernate in order to breed however Ron St.Pierre says this is not so. Since Ron is one of the top two breeders in this country I believe he has significant background for his answer. In a year or so I may be able to answer this question my self.

As to hibernation vs. brumation: I believe when the word brumation is used it means the animal goes to sleep but their entire body does not shut down. Most dictionaries do not even recognize the word. Most lizards only partially shut down and will occasionally come out to see what is happening in their environment over the several months they are underground. I have read about this with Tegu, Desert Iguanas, Uromastyx, Beardies and others.

[Rick]

Hibernation is a natural survival strategy that can be very successful in environments in which food is scarce or just difficult to find during a long, cold winter season. Dropping into hibernation allows the tegu to use their body's energy reserves at a slower rate than they would if they were maintaining themselves at their typical metabolic rate. Hibernation allows the tegu to skip over the cold, stressful seasons and only expend itself fully in those months of abundant food and moderate climatic conditions. This can occur even if the temperture is kept steady and the food source is abundant. I speculate that the reason it occurs is that it is probably instinctual.

Brumation is when you lower the temperature slightly in your tegus enclosure for several months to approximate conditions during the winter period. This is not true hibernation. Brumation will, however, trigger the physical changes that stimulate egg production in females, sperm production in males and the breeding response necessary for successful captive propagation.

It is known that a tegu does not need to hibernate or brumate to become ready for reproduction. There is speculation from some very informed people that a tegu that changes it's normal patterns, meaning hibernates on year then not the next or visa versa, can cause a tegu to stop becoming reproductive. According to some, you should either hibernate every year or not at all. This is based on information from respected members of the tegu community, but should be metered with data from other repected tegu breeders and keepers. So it is better to hibernate the tegu if it has always done so. If it attempts to hibernate and keeps getting disturbed it could cause your tegu to exhaust energy and weaken it to a state where bacteria or parasites natural to the tegu could bloom and become an issue.

Rick