Juvenile eastern going into brumation

[Daxter4034]

Hi I'm new to this forum and new to bts I have a young skink 5 months old and in Queensland we're entering winter and I've noticed my skink is starting to show signs of entering brumation over the last few days it's starting to hide and burrow in its substrate alot more often and I've been told i should avoid entering brumation so im slowly increasing the lighting periods and I'm going to get a stronger bulb because the bulb I have now it takes over half a day to get to the right temperature we have entered a cold snap that seems to be staying is there anything else I should do and is it really bad if such a young skink enters brumation? I'm kinda stressing a bit

[splashy07]

I know things are quite different here in the US, but I have had juveniles go into brumation their first winter, which occurs at the time they're 5-7 months old. If they want to, they're going to and there's really not much you can do. I have noticed this behavior more often than not with males, very seldom females which seem to never want to stop eating.

[Daxter4034]

Sweet thank you very much, you've put my mind at ease

[kingofnobbys]

My adult skinks slow down a little over winter , but are up every couple of days for a drink and a bask and a nibble. My 6 month old juvenile water skink is a bottomless pit and is very active now.

I'm coastal northern NSW , so if anything , you are in a currenty warmer location in Queensland than I am.

I have eastern bluetongues and eastern water skinks. If anything my old lady water skink is more active now than she was month of two ago , and seems hungrier.

Since your Eastern BT is only a juvenile (6 months old) it would be best to keep it's tank warm and keep offering food and water to try to keep it awake over winter. My vet told me it was not advisable to let a juvenile BTS brumate during it's first winter (doesn't have the fat reserves of a healthy adult).
The burrowing is simply trying to stay warm.