Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was wondering if hibernation is absolutely necassary. Please help me with this. I don't want to do anything stupid. Thanks for your time.

Dan Ketterman

Hi Dan,

Glad your here, heheheheh, you wont be sorry if you do decide on these little beauties!

Brumation, is not nessesary unless your planning to breed. If you not , than No, you dont have to.

Some where down the line , if you did want to breed or even give them a bit of a rest, its said to be bennificial to them sometimes.

But not to worry when you first get them. We would all help you with brumation, when the time came.

Hope you stick around, cool people, COOL lizards.

When you asked on the other forum, I figure there are many lizards you could get for that tank, but these are PRETTY to look at for sure, and like I said, if you handle them daily, they will jump into your hand, very friendly.

Nice size about 12 -14 inches approx.

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Eve / PHEve

Thanks for all of your help it was really useful. I'm still worried about the brumation. I don't know if I'll be able to get the temperature down low enough for them. What do you guys use? I usually buy my animals at a reptile and amphibian show around my parts and I don't know if any of the verdors will have collareds there. Thanks for all of your help I'm sure I'll have more questions later.

Dan Ketterman

I'm a little scared to brumate my lizards too. If you will read a few threads down under the topic "synchroizing brumation" people discussed the methods they have used, with the temperatures and stuff. We also talked about some of us doing it at the same time, and I like that idea!
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Valerie

Hi Dan. You should brumate (hibernate) your collared lizards if possible for a few reasons. Not everyone agrees that it is absolutely necessary but for the long run, good health and longevity for your lizards you should do it, and if you want to breed them you should do it (sometimes they will actually enter a breeding cycle without having been brumated). Brumating as it is called for reptiles is part of their natural life cycle and it is usually the stimulus to trigger the breeding season after brumation is completed. It also promotes good health and well being for a long life to your animals, mimicking their natural and annual winter rest period. Ensure your animals are adults or at least 9 months of age and in good health and do not brumate babies. The brumation period can be stressful because the length of time will be between 4 and 16 weeks (8 weeks is a good average to use) so if your lizards are weak and in ill health and have not fed well over the course of the months leading up to brumation don't do it because they could die in the process. Sometimes you can do everything correctly and you may loose one for some unknown reason where a lizard may have been ill and you didn't know it or possibly old age or even dehydration. You'll need to monitor them and provide water to them during this process and if any show signs of being dehydrated you will need to bring them out of brumation as soon as possible. Just like in the wild sickly or weak animals probably won't survive the winter rest period so if you have any that you know are ill or weak do not brumate. Anyway just some thoughts for you.

Jeff

It also promotes good health and well being for a long life to your animals, mimicking their natural and annual winter rest period.

Are there any published studies correllating brumation to longer captive life? I think there might be, but I don't have any sources.

For the following responses, I'll be playing devil's advocate:

Ensure your animals are adults or at least 9 months of age and in good health and do not brumate babies.

Babies must brumate in the wild, so it would be mimicking their natural life cycle to brumate them.

to bring them out of brumation as soon as possible. Just like in the wild sickly or weak animals probably won't survive the winter rest period so if you have any that you know are ill or weak do not brumate.

People with large numbers of lizards still lose a few during brumation. This may be acceptable for breeders or people who have lots of money or no attachment to the individual animals, but if it's someone's only lizard I can understand why they would be reluctant to brumate it. There are lots of things that are involved in an animal's "natural life cycle," such as risk of predators and disease, yet in captivity we try to maintain hygiene and not house are lizards with roadrunners, for some reason.

All this being said, I brumate my animals.
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Chris McMartin
www.mcmartinville.com
I'm Not a Herpetologist, but I Play One on the Internet

You made a very valid point, Chris. I am amazed to find lizards hatching out in late September, only to be put into hibernation a few weeks later...less than 2 months old. I have hibernated young lizards, but I don't prefer to. I believe there are studies that have shown growth does still occur in lizards while hibernating. I know for sure I had some lizards put on weight while brumating...I have heard their has been reports of significant length too. Pretty amazing stuff.

John E.