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Thread: Tegu brumating early, he has eaten food.

  1. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by txrepgirl View Post
    How is he doing ? Did he come back out yet to eat, bask or poop yet ?
    He pretty much sleeps all day. He woke up today for a while but no he did not poop, he did not bask. He walked around and I sprayed his mouth with some water which he drinks, then he peed, as usual.

    I do not know if he eat or not because I did not feed him? The whole point is to get the food out of his gut I don't think I should try to feed him, right? Or should I?

  2. #12
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    This year is particularly abnormal with the animals. Don't know about where everyone else is, but where I live we had a very long, protracted and cold spring and then "snap" went into a short heat wave. I kid you not, from -5C to 35C+ in 2 days. It has really had an impact on the local animals, we saw wood frogs breeding in June, others later, which is really really late. This weird weather seems to have impacted right into the following fall and we're seeing tegus demonstrating strong hibernation behaviour earlier in the season. Goes to show that, if you remember years and years ago when I used to frequently battle with a particular individual on the physiology of tegus, that like I claimed hibernation was not fully regulated by photoperiod alone (otherwise we should see much more regular behaviour on when tegus enter and leave hibernation). I too am already experiencing hibernation behaviour and my guys are in basements with next to no input from natural photoperiod. Also, if you haven't seen my prior posts on the hibernation phenomenon, the fact is that, at least physiologically, tegus are really only fully active 3-4 months of the year, the rest of the year they are ramping down their metabolism and preparing for hibernation or in hibernation. Now I've heard of tegus hibernating with food in their guts, and I've also seen tegus die supposedly from food spoiling in their guts while hibernating. There can be a few reasons for this discrepancy, but I don't think it's necessary to go into them. My own stance is you want to try to avoid having meat in the gut during hibernation, I've just seen too many things go wrong with this. There are a number of practices you can take to try promoting bowel movement and clearing the GI tract. Keep ALL temperatures up (not just warm baths, but keep them warm when sleeping as well) - proper body temperature will promote the digestive system to function. In the last meals before hibernation, I tend to increase the amount of vegetative matter in the food they eat, this promotes rapid passage through the gut. Keep them well hydrated and it probably doesn't hurt to make sure they are getting their electrolytes. With tegus that you're concerned with passing that last meal, you can give them oral doses of mineral oil and water with fiber supplement added to it to aid as a laxative and clear out the GI tract well.

  3. #13
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    Default Re: Tegu brumating early, he has eaten food.

    Thanks for that info

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  4. #14
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    Well I am basically doing everything you have said in the last part, except the mineral oil. I do not want to administer mineral oil without mixing into food for various reasons.

    The temperatures both daytime and night time are up at normal summer temperatures, and the basking spot is left on, although he doesn't use it. There has been NO cold weather here at all as of yet, and probably won't be for at least several more months. He gets regular soaks and water. There is no signs of fecal matter at all for the last two weeks since the last meal. He will only urinate after soaking.

    To be honest I do not know if he is currently brumating or simply "ramping down" and preparing for brumation as you said. If he is still preparing, should he still be fed?

    Should I feed him some vegetable matter to encourage him to pass feces? Like I said he sleeps for days on end but like today he woke up and went around acting as he normally does when awake, not sluggish or anything.

    Although we tend to assign human emotions to our animals, often when I am around him wake him for a soak etc. he looks at me with the same behaviour as when he is usually wanting food. This may or may not be correct, of course, but I do have a pretty good feel for my animal's behaviours.

    How exactly would you know the gut is completely clear anyway? You can count the number of meals and number of defecations but I would think the two do not exactly correspond to each other?



    Quote Originally Posted by tupinambis View Post
    This year is particularly abnormal with the animals. Don't know about where everyone else is, but where I live we had a very long, protracted and cold spring and then "snap" went into a short heat wave. I kid you not, from -5C to 35C+ in 2 days. It has really had an impact on the local animals, we saw wood frogs breeding in June, others later, which is really really late. This weird weather seems to have impacted right into the following fall and we're seeing tegus demonstrating strong hibernation behaviour earlier in the season. Goes to show that, if you remember years and years ago when I used to frequently battle with a particular individual on the physiology of tegus, that like I claimed hibernation was not fully regulated by photoperiod alone (otherwise we should see much more regular behaviour on when tegus enter and leave hibernation). I too am already experiencing hibernation behaviour and my guys are in basements with next to no input from natural photoperiod. Also, if you haven't seen my prior posts on the hibernation phenomenon, the fact is that, at least physiologically, tegus are really only fully active 3-4 months of the year, the rest of the year they are ramping down their metabolism and preparing for hibernation or in hibernation. Now I've heard of tegus hibernating with food in their guts, and I've also seen tegus die supposedly from food spoiling in their guts while hibernating. There can be a few reasons for this discrepancy, but I don't think it's necessary to go into them. My own stance is you want to try to avoid having meat in the gut during hibernation, I've just seen too many things go wrong with this. There are a number of practices you can take to try promoting bowel movement and clearing the GI tract. Keep ALL temperatures up (not just warm baths, but keep them warm when sleeping as well) - proper body temperature will promote the digestive system to function. In the last meals before hibernation, I tend to increase the amount of vegetative matter in the food they eat, this promotes rapid passage through the gut. Keep them well hydrated and it probably doesn't hurt to make sure they are getting their electrolytes. With tegus that you're concerned with passing that last meal, you can give them oral doses of mineral oil and water with fiber supplement added to it to aid as a laxative and clear out the GI tract well.
    Last edited by Anthony; 08-27-2013 at 05:25 PM.

  5. #15
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    May 2013
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    Default Re: Tegu brumating early, he has eaten food.

    Has he been shedding? I just realized it has been about a month since Yoshi has shed. I give him baths, I have his enclosure to automatically turn on a humidifier when humidity goes below 73%. He has stopped eating anything that doesn't move. He used to go crazy for the meat I give him. Now he is doing what he did before when he first hibernated, he just looks at his food and walks away. I through some roaches in his enclosure yesterday to see if live food would trigger his hunger and he ate them all. Should I just keep feeding live? I had stopped feeding live because he bit me once a while ago. He hasn't since. I really think he is starting to brumate like yours is Anthony. But it is so early

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  6. #16
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    You can tell if a Tegu's stomach is empty by the big fold of skin on the side of his stomach. Can you post a photo of him ?
    Rich is not how much you have, or where you are going, or what you are.Rich is who you have beside you.

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  7. #17
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    He has a fold. He has pooed regularly before the last meal. His stomach feels empty. I am sure you can tell if his stomach is RELATIVELY empty, but what I mean is that last little bit. In fact, since he ate once 15 days ago and hasn't pooed, (pooed a day before that) there must be something in there, right?

    I am not sure if I even should stop feeding him yet. He is sleeping all day, but he is clearly interested in food. I was feeding my skinks and I tried to see if he was interested in food. I woke him up and put the food in front of him to try and he was clearly interested, but I took it away. The only reason is that he doesn't wake up doesn't bask isn't very active.

    I am not sure if he is brumating or "pre" brumating and if the latter should I still feed him some.
    Last edited by Anthony; 08-28-2013 at 08:27 AM.

  8. #18
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    Well in your case since he is slowing down I don't see what you are worried about exactly? he's eating but also passing feces right? Is he sleeping all day?

    No mine hasn't shed recently.

    Quote Originally Posted by PapaBean View Post
    Has he been shedding? I just realized it has been about a month since Yoshi has shed. I give him baths, I have his enclosure to automatically turn on a humidifier when humidity goes below 73%. He has stopped eating anything that doesn't move. He used to go crazy for the meat I give him. Now he is doing what he did before when he first hibernated, he just looks at his food and walks away. I through some roaches in his enclosure yesterday to see if live food would trigger his hunger and he ate them all. Should I just keep feeding live? I had stopped feeding live because he bit me once a while ago. He hasn't since. I really think he is starting to brumate like yours is Anthony. But it is so early

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  9. #19
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    Since his stomach looks very empty and he has the fold I wouldn't worry about any food being in there. The little bit that he did eat and didn't poop out went probably to body mass. I wouldn't wake him up any more and just let him bee or it will stress him out. If he is hungry on his own he will come out and be active. Like trying to get out of the enclosure. Rubbing his nose against the enclosure.
    Rich is not how much you have, or where you are going, or what you are.Rich is who you have beside you.

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  10. #20
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    Default Re: Tegu brumating early, he has eaten food.

    Quote Originally Posted by Anthony View Post
    Well in your case since he is slowing down I don't see what you are worried about exactly? he's eating but also passing feces right? Is he sleeping all day?

    No mine hasn't shed recently.
    He is not eating anything except live it seems and he is sleeping all day, but not I have not seen him poop in a while. But I think that might be because he hasn't been eating, I can't remember if he pooped after the last time he ate. But yeah he just buries himself and sleeps all day. I'm just gonna try and get him to poop again since I fed him some roaches yesterday and then let him sleep.

    I was mainly concerned with the not shedding because I didn't know if that was normal or not but I guess it is.

    Sent from my DROID RAZR

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