Help needed with brumation

[guidofatherof5]

It's not the food he has in his stomach. His gut should be empty when he enters brumation. They live off their fat stores during brumation.
Their metabolisms slow way down during brumation and they require far less nutrition.

[ConcinusMan]

It's not the food he has in his stomach. His gut should be empty when he enters brumation. They live off their fat stores during brumation.
Their metabolisms slow way down during brumation and they require far less nutrition.

Far less calories anyway.

I usually feed them plenty of fish for their last month or two before brumation. I think the fat found in salmon and silversides helps get them through. They aren't like us, they don't produce body heat which burns calories. During brumation, heart rate and breathing slows considerably, and so, they burn very few calories. Don't place them in brumation unless they've not eaten for 2-3 weeks. This helps clear out any fecal matter. It's difficult for them to expell that stuff once they are cold, and if they don't do that before brumating, you could end up with impacted colon or the food in their guts will simply rot. Ensure that nothing but urates are coming out before you brumate. They should have decent body mass too because they will lose some weight. Attempting to brumate them at temperatures higher than 55 F will cause them to lose too much weight, too fast, because they'll still be quite active. If you don't have any place cold enough, then skip brumation. Reduced daylight hours and temperature can be done instead, but they'll still need fed once in a while.