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A little over a week ago, I picked up a new home for my Tegu, and I saw him for that first day in which I moved him but not since, he ate and went to the bathroom the day after but nothing else. he was pretty inactive before I moved him, eating very little and sleeping most of the time but not to this extreme. I want to know for sure if he is hibernating because I don't quite know what to do if he is but I'm afraid of disturbing him. I'm also worried because he was having a pretty bad shedding problem and when I bought the new tank I also bought a Habba Mist misting machine, the humidity has been up but I want to make sure he's alright. Should I dig him up for a little bit or just let him be?

I'm trying to have a picture up soon to make sure it's a suitable environment but I'll describe it as best as possible. The tank is 4 feet long, 18" high, and 2 feet deep. It's glass with sliding doors on the front and a screen top. I have the lights on top but also a large piece of plexiglass inbetween the lights to help keep humidity in. On the cooler side I have a combo light set up with a 150 watt flood daytime bulb and a 100 watt black bulb, the temperature is always in the mid 80's. On the other side I have a 8" ceramic dome fixture with a 150 watt flood in it keeping the temperature at about 100 degrees, this is the side with more substrate and where he keeps himself buried. I'm using Keeper's Choice cypress bedding as the substrate. Even with the mister I'm still having an issue with humidity, it ranges throughout 40 and 60 during the day, so I mist it a few hours after the system goes off. My location is in NY, I'm not sure how that affected the humidity but area seems to be a question that goes along with humidity questions.

Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated, I'm trying to do what's best for my Tegu so he grows up big and healthy. Sorry for the long post and thanks in advance.

You have nothing to worry about. Your cage setup sounds great and what you are describing is typical behavior for tegus this time of year. Just continue to do as you are doing and when he is ready he will resume feeding/activity. I would leave him alone while he is inactive.

As far as shedding is concerned an ambient humidity of 40-60% is perfect. Also tegus that are inactive tend to appear they are having difficulty shedding but in reality they are not. When his activity resumes he will shed with no difficulties. The only time to be concerned with shedding in regards to tegus is when there is visible signs of difficulty such as scarring, lesions, or constriction occuring in the limbs, digits, or tail. I promise you that when a tegu has a shedding problem (which is fairly rare as well) that you will have no doubt that it does.

Ron St Pierre
RSCBR

Thanks, I'm really glad that my setup is good. I'm pretty positive that his shedding is a problem though. In the time that he should've had two normal sheds, he had none. Before he went into hibernation, I was giving him baths twice a week and olive oil rubs, I don't think he was getting enough vitamins because he wasn't eating so that probably didn't help. The areas between his limbs and body seemed to be the worse because it was flaking but not falling off and it looking like there was more shed under what was kind of falling off. I don't think there was contriction around his toes but the rest of his skin looked bad. No scars or leisures were visable. I really hope that now his humidity is fine he'll go through the winter and be fine when he comes out. I'm still very worried about him though.

what do you have in his hide box, mulch? try eco earth, its coconut fiber that holds humidity excellent.

I have cypress mulch throughout the entire tank, he doesn't use his hidebox though. He just buries himself in the mulch.