Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I know I just posted a message a second ago, but then this question/debate popped into my head. My boss at work along with this guy who thinks that he is the reptile goo-roo, says that you need to hibernate blues down to 40 degrees. I was like NO FREAK'EN WAY!! But they insist it is true. Then I brought up the point that they burrow under ground, and 3 feet down where they are from isn't 40 degrees. If you read the post I just wrote, my female went threw brunation, where she buried herself and went off eating for 2 months, but I didn't change the temp in her cage at all. I've gone to several websites over the year that I've had them and more then half say you don't need to hibernate blues. I know people go back and forth on this issue, but has there been an aggreement on this topic yet? Sorry for asking so many question!!
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Alone, alone, all, all alone. Alone on a wide, wide sea.
-Rime of the ancient Mariner

np
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Bennett

beardiedragon.com
Home of the Florida Orange

No I don't have a ton of experience with Blues. Infact I've had my female blue for approx a month now. I've done plenty of research and talked to plenty of people. I know 2 people that DON'T drop temps anywhere near that, both have large groups of blues and both breed them. First off Ron and Stella (www.bluetegu.com) and Also Ryan of underground reptiles (www.undergroundreptiles.com). As far as I know both keep them outside all year round here in Florida. I'm sorry but temps haven't hit 40 degrees in awhile. Maybe once lol, but not like what your talking about. I don't care who you are but you can't argue with them. Two very successful breeders with one being the original breeder. With what I've gathered NO you do not need to cool them at all. They will burmate on their own. They sort of slow down by themselves even if lights/temps haven't changed. My female is still sleeping! Too bad I don't have a mate for her and the albinos I'm picking up won't be ready till 06'.
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John Light
JL Exotics
Contact Me
Web Site

I have two blues and one standard black and white. right from the get go my black and white has been a heavy hibernator, choosing cold areas and conking out for several months. I read the recent article discussed here on the forum about the hibernation study of wild black and white tegus and was interested to see that the coldest tempurature observed for the hibernating tegus was 20 deg. celsius which is about 68 degrees f. That is warmer than what my girl has been hibernating at , so I upped her tempurature to 60 degrees to be on the safe side.

my blues are a whole different story. Last year the male went into the hibernation zone of their enclosure, but I noticed he stayed on the heating pad in there, and whenever I checked on them, he would be awake, or wake up. Definitely not a deep hibernation like the black and white.
This year I have a female blue too, and I have decided to skip the whole hibernation thing for them. They don't come out much when it's rainy, but they are still eating and not wanting to hibernate.

In summary, it's my opinion that the blues don't really have a good natural response to a cold season, and should not be subjected to tempuratures under about 70 degrees for any length of time. I bet a blue would die if the tempurature dropped to 40 degrees for a few weeks.