Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have three argentine balck and white tegus, which i have been hibernating since early september. (now i have 2 unfortunatly) I open their cage this morning to surprisingly see my smaller female lying belly up near the door to the cage. i picked her up suspecting death, though i did not know why. after several minutes, i saw several faint signs of life, when she moved her head. I tried to open her mouth, and she kept pulling it shut. i knew she was alive, though when i set her back down, she tried to roll over onto her back again. i dont know if she is in just a very deep sleep, or if something is wrong with her.

Then i saw the male curled up in the corner in the back of the cage. i picked him up, and he was stiff as a board, and was definetly dead. i suspect he suffocated himself in the corner of the cage, with dried grass over his head. i dont know why he suffocated himself here, when in their summer cage outdoors, they bury themselves under a foot of peat moss and stay alive. Any other opinions would be greatly appreciated.

What sort of conditions are you hibernating these under? A little background info regarding cage being outdoors/indoors, area of the country you are in and overall temps and atmosphere would be helpful

Ron St Pierre
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I have them in a 2'x2' cat cage while i hibernate them, with some dried grass on the bottom, and a sheet drape over part of it too keep out some light. (i thought the sheet might have been a possibility for suffocation, though i realized my large female, which is twice the size of the male, is doing perfectly fine.) While hibernating they are kept in a seperate room, which is kept between 55-60 degrees. They have been hibernating since early september. i live in michigan, and i put them into their outdoor cage in mid june, and they stay there untill they are into hibernation, and the weather forces us to bring them inside. this is what i read seemed to work for others. Thanks for any help, Phil

Is there a chance that the tegus were not hibernating, and the cold killed him? Thats how it sounds because you said the female was on her back almost dead.
Just my 2cents

Ok this is what I suspected from your description. I'm not exactly sure who or how this hibernation method came to be known but I have recieved alot of emails over the years regarding it and it's usually fatal outcome.

Bear in mind that while tegus do hibernate in the wild they burrow themselves deep into the ground. Deep in these underground chambers the temperatures stay a fairly constant temps. From what I understand these temps range in the 70F-80F generally. So even wild tegus are not exposed to prolonged, potentially fatal low temps of sub-60F.

Make no mistake that ALL tegus are tropical reptiles and as such cannot withstand prolonged, cold temperatures. Even the most cold tolerant form of tegu, the southern Argentine B&W tegu, cannot withstand this.

Now I have heard the argument "Well Bert Langerwerf keeps his outdoors in Alabama and his cages can be covered with snow". Yes this is very true, however, Bert's cages are cleverly designed to take full advantage of natural heat and he also digs his cages in below the ground. Thus his hibernating tegus will be much warmer down in the safety of their holes and not exposed to direct cold temperatures. Being in South Florida I get away with underground, heated, hide boxes. None of my hibernating tegus are allowed to dip below 70F.

Basically the method you are employing "forces" the tegus to do something that they may not be ready to do and exposes them to prolonged and usually fatal temperatures. Even tegus maintained indoors and kept at constant temperatures will still "know" when its time to hibernate and usually requires nothing on your part. When they are ready they will simply stop feeding and rarely come out of their hiding box. No extremes or manipulation is required. All reptiles are very sensitive to even slight variations in temps and even the most controlled of atmosphere's will still be effected by seasonal changes.

They will hibernate in their regular enclosure when they are ready. It's just that simple.

Ron St Pierre
RSCBR

Thanks Ron St Pierre for your help, your idea of what happened is part of what happened here i think.
i talked to a friend who is at an honors college, taking animal pshycology, and she helped me figure out the most likely problem. First of all, about a month ago, they seemed to have woken up, and tried to dig out of their cage. I didnt understand why or how they would wake up so soon, but they went back to sleep. or so i thought. It didnt seem out of character, theyre always trying to escape, though why would they have woken up just to go back to sleep.(also, they did go into hibernation on their own in august, then they were moved indoors, but being kept at cool temperatures seemed to be the problem.

when they got up, they must not have gone back into hibernation, but just slept all the time without moving much, due to the 58 degree tempreature in the room, i wouldnt be able to tell if they were awake, not hibernating. Since they werent really hibernating, their systems needed water, and food, and energy. They appeared to be hibernating, though it turns out they must not have been.

i took out the big female, and gave her a little water through a baby bottle, and it livened her up some. i moved her to a box with a warm heatpad next to my bed now, so i can keep a close eye on her. She was close to death too, though at a glance at her, she looked just like she was in a very deep hibernation. She was even up and walking around yesterday, and her condition is improving.

dehydration seemed to be the culprit here. This was very unfortunate, and i would just like it to be a lesson to beginners or inexperienced keepers of some of the things that can go wrong, so others do not have to learn the hard way, and loose a loved pet. I am thinking about compiling all information on keeping tegus i can find, and creating a website totally devoted to the health and keeping of tegus.

Thanks Ron,

That explains a lot, I have had my Arg. B&W Tegu for 4 years and I have never tried to hibernate him, but during the cooler months he is less active and slows down his feeding.