September Brumation?

[hstingray]

Hello group. I'm really looking for experienced opinions here, but the short of it is I obtained a CB blotched blue tongue here in the US in late July. Since getting him, his appetite had been very minimal through early to mid-August, but by late August he had stopped feeding completely. At this point, he was still basking for a few hours per day until late August/early September, when he finally started staying buried in either the mulch in his enclosure or the sheet moss on top of his hide box on the cool end of his enclosure. In August, I had noticed he had dropped from about 540 g down to about 498g, and took him to a really good herp vet that herself has a BTS. She didn't think there was any obvious issue, but maybe it was just moving from one region to another and a change of scenery that might be throwing him off. He appears to have lost more weight since I last weighed him(no surprise since he hasn't been eating), but did not want to keep stressing him by catching him up a continuously re-weighing him. Every time I move a little bit of moss to check him out, I get hissed at quite loudly. He also comes out about every three days or so and knocks moss all over his enclosure until he sees me, then reburies himself. Guess I was just wondering if this all sounds like possible brumation? I'm completely thrown off with this male as he just never really ate much of a meal since I got him, and it seems that August/September is a little early to start slowing down for the year. The weight loss concerns me quite a bit as well, but have heard periodic stories of skinks going off feed for upwards of 4-7 months at times, and then spontaneously feeding again. Any thoughts? Thanks.

[mb606587]

You're going to be hard pressed to find many people in the US with experience with Blotchies but it does sound typical of brumation. Maybe a bit early but typically October is normal time for them. My Irian Jaya once went unseen and unfed from November to March.

[hstingray]

Yeah, I realize there aren't many folks in the states that have nigrolutea, unfortunately. As of today, his eyes are closed while he is in hiding, so am kind of assuming he is just shutting down for the year. Hopefully he bounces back when he decides to wake up, as he just never really built up that good fat reserve to get him through brumation. Still just kind of left shaking my head. Thanks for the thought.