My Reptile Stopped Eating: Is It Sick or Is It Brumation?

Your Dragon Won't Wake Up

It's November. Your bearded dragon hasn't eaten in a week. The heat lamp works perfectly, but your dragon stays buried under the substrate or wedged behind the hide. You try offering crickets, worms, even their favorite greens. Nothing. They just lie there, eyes closed, completely motionless.

You panic. Is this metabolic bone disease? Impaction? Respiratory infection? Should you rush to the emergency vet?

Before you panic, consider this: your dragon might be responding to ancient programming written into their DNA millions of years ago.

What Is Brumation?

Brumation is the reptile version of hibernation. As winter approaches, many reptile species naturally slow down their metabolism and enter a state of dormancy. In the wild, temperatures drop and food becomes scarce. Reptiles evolved to shut down non-essential functions and wait out the seasonal resource scarcity. They're not sick. They're surviving.

Bearded dragons from the Australian outback experience winters between 5-18°C. Leopard geckos from Afghanistan and Iran face similar seasonal temperature drops. These animals carry genetic instructions to enter dormancy when internal signals trigger, regardless of whether your thermostat maintains perfect temperatures year-round.

Think of it like jet lag for reptiles. Your dragon's internal calendar says "winter is coming" even though your living room stays 22°C. The evolutionary programming overrides the environmental reality.

The Worried Keeper's Dilemma

Many owners try to prevent brumation entirely. They keep tanks hot year-round, maintain bright lighting schedules, and worry that their dragon will starve or stop growing. The anxiety makes sense. Watching your pet refuse food for weeks feels wrong.

But here's what the research shows: brumation may actually be beneficial. A study on mountain yellow-legged frogs compared brumated juveniles to non-brumated controls (Calatayud et al., 2021). The brumated animals initially showed slower growth. However, within three to four months after emergence, they caught up completely through compensatory growth mechanisms. More importantly, frogs destined for wild release showed potentially higher survival rates when they experienced dormancy during captive rearing.

The takeaway? Preventing brumation doesn't guarantee faster growth or better health. In some cases, it might actually remove important physiological preparation that animals need.

The Danger Zone

While brumation is natural, it can become dangerous under the wrong conditions. The biggest risk? A dragon entering dormancy with a full stomach.

When temperatures drop, digestion slows dramatically. Food sitting in the gut at low temperatures doesn't get processed. Instead, it ferments and rots. Bacterial overgrowth leads to sepsis. This is genuinely life-threatening.

Tank hygiene matters during brumation. Respiratory infections can develop in dragons that brumate in enclosures with poor ventilation or excessive humidity. Post-brumation mortality has been documented in laboratory settings, possibly linked to viral reactivation when immune function stays suppressed during dormancy.

What Should You Do?

If your dragon is showing brumation signs, follow this checklist:

Check seasonal timing. Brumation typically occurs in late fall through winter. A dragon stopping eating in July probably has a different problem.

Verify body condition. Dragons under one year old should not brumate. They lack sufficient fat reserves. Adults showing brumation behavior should have good body condition going into dormancy. Visible weight loss or dehydration indicates illness, not brumation.

Ensure complete digestion. If your dragon has visible food in their belly, do not allow temperatures to drop. Wait until digestion completes before facilitating brumation.

Monitor temperature gradients. Whether you facilitate brumation or maintain active conditions, temperature consistency matters. Wild swings stress the animal and disrupt the metabolic state.

Provide secure hiding. Brumating dragons seek dark, secure spaces. Ensure your enclosure offers appropriate refugia where the dragon feels protected.

The Protocol Question

Many keepers want specific instructions: exactly how cold, for how long, what humidity levels, when to offer water. These details matter tremendously. A dragon cooled too quickly can experience metabolic shock. Humidity mismanagement leads to dehydration or respiratory problems. Temperature selection varies by species and native habitat.

The complete protocol requires understanding pre-brumation fasting periods, gradual temperature reduction schedules, humidity management during dormancy, and safe emergence procedures. Research on laboratory brumation of lacertid lizards provides the foundation for evidence-based protocols.

Want the complete safe brumation protocol? We synthesized laboratory research and conservation breeding data into a step-by-step guide. Subscribers to our Research Library can access "The Physiology of Dormancy: A Safe Brumation Protocol" with comprehensive protocols, phase-by-phase instructions, and scientific reasoning for each management decision.

Brumation or Illness?

How do you tell the difference? Gradual onset over days to weeks suggests brumation. Sudden lethargy suggests illness. Seasonal timing matters. Maintenance of body condition matters. A dragon that slowly reduces food intake in October while maintaining weight is probably brumating. A dragon that suddenly stops eating in June while losing weight rapidly needs veterinary attention.

Other clinical signs help distinguish. Brumating dragons typically show no discharge from eyes or nose, no labored breathing, no visible parasites, and no abnormal feces before they stop defecating entirely. Any of these signs indicate illness rather than normal dormancy.

Moving Forward

Your dragon's refusal to eat might not be an emergency. It might be evolutionary biology playing out in your living room. Understanding brumation as a normal biological process rather than a husbandry failure reduces anxiety and supports better decision-making.

Young dragons should not brumate. Dragons with marginal health should not brumate. But healthy adult dragons showing typical seasonal patterns? They might be responding to instructions older than human civilization. That's not a crisis. That's biology.