Brumation

[madisondouglas]

I don't know if this has been asked before, but I have a male leopard gecko who is roughly 1 year old. I have always heard about brumation but I always assumed it was for females because they are the ones who lay eggs. So first off, do males brumate too? And if they do, what the heck am I supposed to do? Should I bring him to a vet - or at least talk to one near me? I have noticed already (its Nov 12th) that he's staying on the colder side more often so does that mean I have to turn off his heat mat? I have no experience whatsoever with this so if anyone can help me I will appreciate it. He is my first reptile and when I was doing my research before I got him nobody/no websites said anything about males brumating.

 

[acpart]

Brumation refers to a reptile's practice of sleeping during cold weather. Some reptile breeders (but generally not leopard gecko breeders) recreate the winter cool down from nature by turning off the heat and letting the reptiles (both male and female) stop eating and sleep. Some reptiles go over to the cool side on their own and eat much less. My bearded dragons have been asleep for the past month or so and I expect that they will be asleep till about January. There is no need to do anything special. Both males and females may eat the same amount during the winter as always, or may go to the cool side and eat less or not at all. I think they are responding to the decrease in ambient light as opposed to heat, since we usually keep our homes about the same temperature. As long as your gecko isn't losing tons of weight (i.e. tail getting a lot skinnier), just let him do what he wants and keep offering food just in case. Here is a Gecko Time article about brumation:

Gecko Brumation: The Who? What? Where? When? And Why? Of Cooling Your Geckos - Gecko Time

So people ask me, and I see a lot of ‘talk’ on the forums about the exact nature and techniques that are required to properly cool an animal down for the winter. A lot of questions are asked and the most common are the obvious such as: “At what temperatures should I cool my geckos? And for how...

www.geckotime.com

Aliza