#Brumation advice

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sweet latch
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I'm new to dealing with geckos and I had noticed my new (adult) gecko has not been accepting food and mostly sleeping all day on the cool side of his enclosure for a couple weeks. He's still looking great and hasn't lost any notable weight, but I only figured out what it was about as of today. I'm seeing mixed advice online, should I be keeping his heat lamp off at this point? Should I continue to offer food every so often?

I know generally if their heat is kept consistent then they generally won't even enter brumation, but previous to coming to me he was kept in a home that neglected him and I'm pretty sure their heat lamp broke sometime near last winter if I am remembering correctly... And who knows about the 4-5 years before that. I'm guessing I should just expect it to be his yearly routine each year?

modern quest
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NQA Even with consistent temps year round, they can still usually sense the change in season. It's very common for individuals who have been kept perfectly for their whole life to go off food come winter time.

I don't know a whole lot about brumation, but it seems like something that has the potential to be done disastrously wrong if you don't have the experience for it, so I would avoid purposefully trying to brumate if you haven't looked into it further to make sure it's being done correctly. Take his weight now and if he continues to refuse food and act differently, do regular check ins to make sure his weight is remaining relatively the same.

sweet latch
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That's essentially what I've been doing already at this point. It's been about a 4 week process. He went from eating twice a week, to only once a week. Then the past 2 he's declined any food at all. He doesn't leave his hide at all and it isn't one I can really move. But as far as I can see, he's looking about the same.

I had been helping him gain weight this year after being emaciated from his previous home, but he's actually just sliiightly chubby right now.

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Thank you! I read through it all. I'm glad I've had the heat on at this point for a couple weeks without feedings as far as impaction worries go, I think I will lower the temperature over the next couple of weeks and continue to monitor him closely. Usually if he wants his insects he will come out and stand on a particular branch of his so I think I can probably just judge it by how he is acting as long as he doesn't lose any weight. If anyone else has any advice to chip in, it will be appreciated. I'll have to continue researching it since it seems he seems so set on brumation lol