Brumation and daylight?

[mörten]

Hello all!

As some of you know, I live in Sweden and during the summer we have very long days when the sun sets at 11-12 pm and rises at 4 am. Durig the winter, the days are very short and sun is up only for a few hours a day. So, my question to you guys (knowing that you are not sweds of course...) is, is it possible for a gecko to go into some kind of brumation during the light summers even if the temperature in the tank remains the same all year round?

 

[LCReptiles]

If they have access to the natural sunlight and can tell the days are growing longer or shorter then I would very much think it was possible. Of course I am no expert but it seems to reason that just like humans any animal that can see the difference between night and day will act accordingly regardless of temperatures.

 

[mörten]

Thank you Jeff It is really strange that one of my geckos seems to react to the sunlight despite steady floor temperature. The tanks receive direct sunlight from windows in front of them. I have installed dark curtains filtering out sunlight but the room is still filled with daylight to twelve pm.

Is it possible that my male is simply reacting to the long bright days, which affects only his day/night cycle and does not in fact make him brumate? He is active as normal and eats and poops regularly. The only difference is just that he wakes up at like 11-12 pm at night and remains in his hide sleeping through the 20 hours of sunlight

 

[ebuch]

Fascinating! I hope everything is okay, but that is really interesting. I'm sure that the gecko doesn't have the ability to measure time the way we do and has no real concept of it in his little brain. The question is do leopard geckos have an internal clock, and if they do are they capable of following it? If he doesn't have an internal clock the way that we do (I can't imagine that he does) then he probably doesn't know the difference between 12 hours and 20 hours, to him it's just not dark yet, so why wouldn't he stay in his hide all day?

 

[LCReptiles]

I agree ebuch. I am only going into my third year of Wildlife Science at my university and most of my core classes so far have dealt with ecology, taxonomy and genetics, however it makes sense to me that if he is eating and doing all of his daily functions the say regardless of day length then it isn't really a brumation by definition but you could start to see some sluggishness towards the end of the day simply due to him being tired. My geckos are situated across from a window with light filtering blinds as well, however it is on the shaded side of the house so I doubt other then when we use our lights at night they can tell little difference. I notice generally from around 9am - 5pm (eastern US time) that my geckos are usually snoozing away. Once 7 or 8pm rolls around and I switch on the light they start roaming the cage looking for pets, or food, or just to see what I am doing. Of course each gecko is different. I have 1 girl that will run to the edge of the tub every time I enter the room if she is awake. She also will rub her head against my hand/fingers as I'm working in the tub and occasionally nip at me if I haven't put the mealworms in yet. By contrast I have one gecko I've had over a year that runs at the mere sight of me. Unless you start to see some detrimental effects I wouldn't worry too much. It is indeed very interesting though so please keep us updated.

 

[ebuch]

I guess they can tell because that's how they know when it's time to mate, but their bodies might just automatically adjust to different amounts of a certain temperature and they may not know anything about it. From what I've read that when reptiles go in to brumation they're still up at certain points of the day to drink water. I'm thinking about putting a security camera on my geckos because I want to see how active they are at night time and I want to see what kind of activities they do when I think they're ill. But please let us know what happens with the Swedish scaled one.

 

[mörten]

I will definitely keep you guys updated. What a neat idea to put up a camera and see what they're really up to

I have never had any of my geckos brumating before. My girl is like that too, running to the front of her tank greeting me when I come home. I think it is really sweet when she stands on her hind legs and looks at me with her big beautiful eyes Today it is actually midsummers in Sweden which means that today is the longest day of the year, with the sun never setting Guess my gecko is in for a long night!

 

[ebuch]

. Of course each gecko is different.

That to me says it all. Sure there are behaviors you can look for that may indicate you're doing something wrong i.e. my female was on the second level in her hide, so I reached down and touched the slate and it was starting to get hot, so I went down a size on the bulb and the heat pad and its been fine. But based on how they just act when they're roaming about there's really not a lot you can determine about their health. That's why things like, thermostats, scales, and temperature gauges are so important if you want your gecko to be living in truly ideal conditions. I have some black curtains, not blinds that make my bedroom about pitch dark until noon (US EASTERN).

If you're concerned about their light schedule, I'd find some thick black curtains for that room (if they are in a separate room, I don't know if they're like, out for everyone to see all the time) and then just turn a light bulb on when you want them to know its daytime. I want to put some of those thick black curtains in my gecko room because I feel like part of the fun of having the creatures is being able to have complete control of their very fragile environment.

 

[mörten]

That to me says it all. Sure there are behaviors you can look for that may indicate you're doing something wrong i.e. my female was on the second level in her hide, so I reached down and touched the slate and it was starting to get hot, so I went down a size on the bulb and the heat pad and its been fine. But based on how they just act when they're roaming about there's really not a lot you can determine about their health. That's why things like, thermostats, scales, and temperature gauges are so important if you want your gecko to be living in truly ideal conditions. I have some black curtains, not blinds that make my bedroom about pitch dark until noon (US EASTERN).

If you're concerned about their light schedule, I'd find some thick black curtains for that room (if they are in a separate room, I don't know if they're like, out for everyone to see all the time) and then just turn a light bulb on when you want them to know its daytime. I want to put some of those thick black curtains in my gecko room because I feel like part of the fun of having the creatures is being able to have complete control of their very fragile environment.

Yeah I agree. All the ground temperature readings, thermostats etc are just as usual. I actually got one of those dark curtains that keep the brightest sunshine out. For a few days I pulled it down earlier at around 5-6 pm to see if he would "notice" (I like to believe he is a sharp little gecko lol). After a day or two I could see his little head sticking out of his cave and at 7-8 pm he got up and started to do his usual business in his tank (which involves stating at me and following my every move) . I have a light bulb that I will put it on when the days start to get really short again.

Yes, being able to control their special enviroment and provide them the right setup is really fun and rewarding There is nothing as fulfilling as having a happy gecko