Reptile & Amphibian Forums

even if u keep the temperature hot in there like always?and if they do hibernate how do they do it, do they ever come out once in a while to eat or something or u can just pretty much leave everything off?

Not all the signals that tell a DI when to brumate are related to temperature. In fact, on nice days in winter, DI's, like Chucks, will come out and bask. A great deal of the signals they obey have to do with day length. They tend not to be as active or to feed when the day length is shorter. Even when kept inside with lights in a room that has no exposure to the outside, they tend to get logy and inactive.

It seems that my pair for the 3 years that I have been keeping them in a large vivarium will start staying underground 2-3 months after laying eggs no matter what the temps or light cycle is doing
whether i like it or not.
John Styner

I am nervous about letting them stay underground in my cage because I fear that it may not be cool enough to lower metabolism enough for the long brumation (I brumated them almost 7 months last year)

In the wild they probably can burrow down to cooler temps than they can in my cage.

So when they start staying under I dig them up and put them in the fridge at 64-69F.

John Styner