Hey if anyone has any insight I would appreciate. So I’m a first time northern blue tongue skink owner. He’s roughly a year old.
He starting brumating the end of last November and has been asleep since. Only times been awake was a vet check up to see if he was healthy to brumate and a couple of times to weigh him. He started at 360g beginning of December and now 346g as last week.
My question is do I do anything to encourage waking up? I read where they usually brumate 6-12 weeks. Do I slowly introduce heat? Or wait? I really don’t know. Appreciate any help!
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You will need to both warm the room up and also create a more spring like light cycle. Slowly, bring the room temp up don’t do it all at once. Set a light on a timer so that it’s 14 hours a day. That should be all you need.
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Ok thanks. I assume I shouldnt supply the normal high temperature right away? Right now I left the basking light on for 4 hours which is reaching the upper 80s. Do I gradually raise it higher? Or wait until he actually wakes up and starts basking?
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I also have an led on all day now.
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I would leave the basking lamp on during daylight hours. Your whole goal here is fake spring so more light and warmer temps.
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@ballornothing got pretty much everything. I may or may not have dropped my phone in a pool this somewhat breaking my phone. I am usually never this far behind on posts 
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Ooooh not good Logan! I was wondering why I haven’t gotten any “likes” from you lately!!!
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Alright thanks guys! Hopefully this will trigger him to wake up. I just don’t feel comfortable him to brumate too long since he’s not fully grown. Also when should I be trying to reach higher temps in the 90s?
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I for some reason thought this thread was about hognoses 
. So I do have a bit to add. Increase the basking spot gradually to 105-110 over the next week or two. I would also do a substrate change and get the humidity up to 60%. Along with that once the lights to a 12/12 or 14-10 hour light cycle. I personally have just keep it at 12/12 year round but I am thinking about trying a more natural lighting style. If you don’t already have a CHE or a DHP I would get one. A lot of times, brumation is caused by shorter days and/or cooler temperatures so if the night is too cold then it will trigger it. I don’t know if you meant to brumate or not but just thought I would throw that in
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Nah I never had a reptile brumate on me. Only ever kept gecko species before so he just did on his own. I’ll supply some night heat aswell.
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Hey last question. I’m sure there’s no exact answer but is there a rough estimate of when they usually start waking up when you stimulate spring? I just want to make sure he’s going to actually wake up and not brumate with heat on and lose weight quicker. I saw where they tend to start waking up in February?
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they will usually start waking up whenever the lights are on for longer periods of time and higher temps
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Has been roughly a week and still no signs of basking or any other activity. Should I be concerned or just let him wake up on his own?
It depends on ambient temps and atmospheric pressure of your location. They dont eat much and should not be fed up to two weeks before bromation because the food can rotten in stomach. Mine eat very little throughout bromation. Clean fresh water is important in addition to hides/diging substrate. You can still allow basking temps during day but i would lower heat. They come out of bromation once mornig temps start creaping up in late winter early spring.
Some skinks never go down completely but seem much more lethargic.