All four of them had plenty of fat reserves. I would not have attempted brumation otherwise. As mentioned, I was intending to breed them. Otherwise, I would not have brumated them. I know some people like Maureen do not brumate their chucks and still have breeding success but others like Nick believe that brumation may be more important for males, possibly leading to better sperm production as it does in other lizards. I know four lizards is way too small of a sample to draw any definitive conclusions, but I wonder if there is any significance to the fact that only the males died. I did weigh them before putting them into brumation, but I can't find the paper I wrote the weights on. I haven't weighed them post-brumation but from all outward appearances, they appear to have just as much fat reserves now as they did from the start. If I ever do brumate again, I'll do it for a minimal amount of time. For those of you who do brumate your animals, what the minimal amount of time you have brumated your males to elicit a good breeding response? I wonder if only certain males really benefit from brumation. As I mentioned earlier, my mature male showed breeding behavior for the first time only after brumation last year.

Perry

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