Babies and brumation

[mom22wins]

Do bluey's hibernate if they are babies/juveniles? I read somewhere that the adults can go without eating for months while in brumation but what about a growing baby of 4 or 5 months?

I guess what I'm asking is, will my bluey baby (she will be around 4 or 5 months when it gets cold here) hibernate this year? Can we skip a year? How do I prepare the tank if she should brumate this year?

[MartinsPerson]

Babies can brumate, but its usually not recommended. Last year I just kept a close eye on my temps and didn't let them drop because I didn't want Baloo to brumate. He still slowed down a little but never actually brumated.

[mom22wins]

So, I would just keep my temps between say 70 - 80 degrees on the cooler side and 95 - 102 on the basking side and she won't brummate?

[KyleWeiss]

Sometimes you can't control brumation one way or the other.

KW

[mom22wins]

She burrows alot as it is so how do I know she is actually going into brumation and not just hiding?

[bluetonguemad]

when she burrows and you don't see or hear from her in a few days it could be but she may just be hiding

[mewzic-7123]

if shes in brumation shell stop eatin(i think), if you want her to not brumate, you could try makin sure shes not aware its time to brumate(i guess)

[mom22wins]

when she burrows and you don't see or hear from her in a few days it could be but she may just be hiding

I was thinking that too but I have been digging her out to get her used to being handled so I really wouldn't be able to use that method to figure it out. I guess I'll just see if she slows down with the eating...

Babies can brumate, but its usually not recommended.

By the way, Why is it not recommended?

[Jenn]

I normally do not let my guys burmate their first year. I keep their temps up and their lights on for 12 hours a day. But like Kyle mentioned some bluey's burmate whether you change your temps or not. Spike always starts to cool in the middle of oct and Stella, Saphira and Cordy start cooling mid-nov no matter what I'm doing with their temps. Frankie doesn't do anything until I start lowering her lights and temps and Baylee still runs around like crazy all winter even though I have lowered his lights and temps!
You'll notice the difference between staying burrowed and brumating. I have to dig around in my guys cages once a week to get a huff so I know they are still alive, that's how little I will see them. They also won't eat anything.
As long as an animal is healthy, I follow what they do. If they start to cool themselves, then I start lowering their lights and temps and when they start to come back around I start warming up their temps and leaving their lights on. If they don't show any signs of cooling then I just leave everything alone and still offer food. Now if I know I am trying to breed then I do change the temps and lights so they will cool. Out of my 8 bluys all but Christopher brumated last year and while he didn't brumate he did slow down and not eat as often.

[mom22wins]

Thanks Jenn! That clears alot up for me. I had no idea they were such individual little souls!

[Jenn]

I found having 8 blueys makes me stress less because you see that a lot of things that you use to worry about is really only the blueys personality. They all have their little quirks.

To answer your question about why it's not recommend for babies to brumate is that you want to make sure they have enough fat stored to live off of through the winter. They don't move much, so aren't really using that much energy but they still do lose some weight. Where a 40-80 gram weight loss isn't alot of a full grown northerns weight, it would be a lot of a babies weight.

[mom22wins]

Yeah, Sammy is so little now, I think if she lost any weight she'd disappear! lol

[bluetonguemad]

lol, its easy to stop my turtle brumating, just keep the water the same, keep feeding the same and make sure theres always lots of fish for him to chase, borris sure does love his tetras

maybe if you didnt dig him up youd find out if he was trying to brumate,

[KyleWeiss]

They all have their little quirks.

Like Baylee's quirk of wanting to come home to Kyle Weiss.

KW

[Zach]

Great responses everyone...

[Lisa]

Sometimes you can't control brumation one way or the other.

KW

Yes, I think it's not so much about letting, making or wanting them to brumate, it's more about what your skink wants to do. And yes, they do brumate their first winter in the wild, their birth sac which they eat contains the nutrients they need to make it through. Most captive bred babies are healthy and well fed, I don't think there's as much issues with them not being healthy enough to brumate their first year. Remember, there's no rush to get them to full size, they live for 20 years!

Brumation is not true hibernation. So even though they are less active and not as hungry, they may still make an appearance on warm days.

Having said that, I do err more on the side of keeping them awake their first winter. Just to make sure they are growing healthily and not developing any problems. It can be hard to get the balance right of food, calcium etc when young, and they do the most of their growing at an early age.

But go with what your skink wants to do. If you see a slowing down of activity and less interest in food then just start reducing the amount of time your lights are on each day over a period of 2-3 weeks. Just change them about 30-60 mins once a week. Mine end up down to about 10am-3pm.

If they do brumate, don't feed them because you don't want food sitting in their tummies while they sleep. But leave fresh water out in case they do wake up.

[Geoff Gates]

Excellent Lisa,

See! I told you that you're an experienced keeper.

[Jenn]

They all have their little quirks.

Like Baylee's quirk of wanting to come home to Kyle Weiss.

KW

Baylee loves me and doesn't want to live anywhere else!!!! He did say he wouldn't mind if you brought Rollie for a visit though.

[aggiegirl]

We bought Pele' at Christmas time last year. He was only 6 months old and hadn't been receiving a great diet. I changed his diet dramatically and he seemed eager to eat each day. I also set his heat/lights on a summer schedule. He didn't brumate. He did (however) spend alot of time hiding and has been more active since the warm weather came. Of course, it doesn't get too cold here in Texas in the winter---just really hot during the summer. This year (especially since I have Charlotte to keep me company during the long winter months) I will change his heating/lighting/feeding and see if he brumates. This actually makes me nervous. I have a schedule (compliments of Kyle!) that I'm planning to follow. I'm sure I'll be posting with future questions about this!

[Jenn]

Burmating them use to make me nervouse as well. It seems wrong that they should eat for that long period of time. The first winter is the hardest but once you see them come through that one it gets easier. Plus like I mentioned most of mine go into on their own so it's just matching what they do naturally. After a while you'll also get to know their habits which makes it easier. The first winter that spike started slowing down on his own earlier then I normally started cooling, I got all nervous that something was wrong. Know I know that he just goes down eariler then the rest. Even though Frankie will warm up at the end of Feb she doesn't start to really eat until June. I use to freak out and worry but know I know that's her thing and she makes up for not eating in the summer months. I do find it really helpful to keep weights on my guys because it helps me know when to worry or not worry. I would never brumate a skink that I thought was too skinny or not healthy enough to make it through the winter.