Reptile & Amphibian Forums

so for the last few days, Toki (i'm pretty sure it's a she) hasn't eaten a thing, for the last 4 months, as soon a i dropped in the crickets she'd gobble them up but lately, she's been only eating most of them, and in the last two days, she doesn't seem to have any interest in eating at all, as i was looking back over the previous posts, i noticed talk of something called brumation, or some such thing, except every time i try to look that up, i cant really find anything on it, my dragon is about 12 inches long and i'd say 4-5 months old, it looked like she was going to shed last week, but only her legs and her tail did, the rest of her body and head look like they still need to. i know with it being winter, it's not exactly uncommon for dragons to stop eating, and i don't want to freak out over nothing, but it's kind of hard to watch as the crickets i put in there start crawling up on her basking point and proceed to try to hang out on her head. so before i ramble on too much more, any information on brumation (i don't think i'm spelling that right) or any other ideas would be helpful, ALSO, i live in North Dakota, so there's really no vets out here that know anything about reptiles. other than the not eating she seems pretty much ok, still likes to explore watches me when im in my room. thanks for your time and sorry for such a long post.

I'd have a fecal done at a vet. A dragon that size should not want to brumate. Brumation is generally done by adults. At only 12" your dragon has not stored up enough reserves to brumate and it would be very dangerous if you allowed her to.

I'd recheck other husbandry items also, such as basking spot temp. and hot and cool side ambient temps. The lights should still be on for 14 hours and off for 10.

i got some vita spray from the pet store and sprayed her down, about 2 hours later her head broke out so i think that she just needed to shed.

Mine did brumate at that young age... He was sleeping for about 4-5 months, waking up every now and then, and then I soaked him in warm water (not hot) and he started drinking it and came out of his brumation. He started eating the next day. The theory goes is that when you soak them it simulate the rainy season where they come from. That's when food is plentiful and the dragon started coming out of their brumation. Maybe you can try soaking it and see what happen. Before going to far, is your BD sleeping a lot. If he is not sleeping, then he is not brumating. He may have bad gut flora. See if you can find a good Avian vet. He/she may be able to help.

This year I have a 175 gram dragon brumating. But he is 17" long. A 12" dragon is well under 100 grams and I've never heard of one brumating at that weight.

Mine did because his cage was near a window. He could see the day length getting shorter. That's probably why.

honestly, she seems pretty healthy, i noticed the colors really started to pop with this shedding. is there some significant shedding period for young dragons? other than not eating, the end of her tail seems to have turned pretty dark.

The end of the tail is probably gtting ready to shed. There is no significant time when they need to they shed. Much more often when their growing.

They shed more often when they are younger since they are still growing.