Questions about brumation from a new owner...

[Hyrulemaster77]

Hey everyone! I am proud to announce that as of October I am an excited if a bit nervous parent of a Northern Blue Tongue skink! 'Her' name is Spooks, and she is about 6 months old. Recently, we had a day where the furnace suddenly gave out and the air temperature of her living quarters dropped to about 60 degrees F. I live in Minnesota and the drop happend at night but thankfully I had a space heater going so it didn't get too cold. I spent most of the morning warming her, and she seemed to be fine.

That was about two weeks ago. Since that time she hasn't been very active and I am wondering if she went into brumation accidentally? I offered her a few small roaches which she happily went after, but I haven't seen her out basking much since the incident and she hasn't been very interested in food. She mostly spends the time I'm home in her cave on the cooler end which is still around 83 degrees F (the warm side is in the 90s). The other point of concern is I haven't seen her poop for awhile. My question is this. When skinks are in brumation, do they have really slowed bathroom habits as well? Should I be concerned? I think I saw a uerate but no feces...should I be as worried as I am? Am I over thinking this? Should I take her to a vet??

[Y33T]

seeing only urates and no poop is perfectly normal during brumation.

[splashy07]

Temp changes will often trigger brumation, nothing abnormal here. Sometimes it's even sort of like a 'semi-brumation' where they will come out and take a little food at times, have something to drink and then retreat again.