Sandy wins the battle, I have been trying to keep her up for weeks, so she would grow more, but she insists on going to sleep, she's had her fecal and its fine, is nice and tubby and all I am accomplishing is making her fatter trying to keep her awake and active. She had a nice bath two days ago and a nice poopie.... not ate since so I gave up and tucked her in her favorite sweatshirt(mine, but she claimed it months ago), put her in a tub, gave her a drink and let her go to sleep yesterday which she promply did and has not budged since. She next to my computer so I can make sure for a few days that she is really asleep, but then she goes to the closet. GAWD that sounds so bad, only other beardie people can understand putting your beardie in a box and sticking it in the closet for a few months!!!!! Now, if I can just get through this!
Yes, they do. It's called brumation. Although, it's not always settle down, go to sleep for a coupla months and wake up. Some do it in stages. Sleep for 2 days, stay awake and just lay around for a day, maybe nibble on some veggies, then sleep for 2 more days, stay awake for a day, etc.. Some will sleep for a week, then go through a couple of days of relative normalsy (eating on the first, pooping on the second), then go back to sleep for a week. Each dragon is different, and handles brumation in their own way depending upon the conditions in which they are kept, their personal preferences, general personality and attitude, etc.
Some don't brumate at all. It depends on how they're kept, temperatures, etc. If it starts to cool down (as it does inside the house here in the summer when the A/C's on more), they think it's winter time and slow down. In winter when it's cooler outside, and the heat is on inside the house, they think it's summer so they're up more and more active. If the temperature stays nice n' warm and even for 'em all year round, they might not brumate. I've talked to people who've had dragons for 5 or 6 years that have never brumated, and I've talked to others who've also kept beardies for a few years and almost every one of 'em brumates each year. It basically boils down to ambient air temperatures. Even though it may be 110 directly under their basking lamp all year round, they still sense and feel the general crispness to the air if it's cooler outside their enclosure (or their cool end starts to get cooler than usual).
You can also have several in the same enclosure and some will sleep for months, some just dose and some be running around all the time and trying to outgrow the ones sleeping It really depends alot on the beardie, it has been shown that animals that brumante seem to have larger clutches and is recommended if you plan to breed them to make a cooling situation.
Mine are too young to burmate, but I can't wait. Food and crix costs would be way down if they did! Just a small visit to the store and the pet store for crix would do them in. I hope they do! In the spring I will put them on the 10/14 to get they ready for mating! I can't wait!
Yes, it does make for a break with the adults, I use the time they are sleeping or slowing down to add new ones to our Family. Babies require alot of time and attention the first few months to get them off ot a good start and with the adults sleeping (I still miss them) it gives you that time. Also, if you plan on breeding them and hatching young, it gives you pleanty of time to be set up and finanacially ready for that. Breeding is very expensive, as babies should not be sold prior til 2 months old and 3 is even better, their survival rate is much higher if they are well established and eating a variety of foods. Its less stressful for the young to separate when a few months old. A average clutch will go through 400 + crickets a day, thats a big expense and rarely will you get the cost of the feeding back in sales of them. This is something to really think about prior to breeding them.
