Brumation and hibernation can basically be viewed as the same thing, although it seems that brumation may be the term that is shown greater favor.

First, if Spot has not eaten in a while, him wanting to brumate may not be the cause. Are you certain if he is fixing to shed or not? Have you had him his whole life? If not, there is a chance that whomever had him before you maybe put him in brumation before?

If you plan on brumating Spot, I would at first make sure he has good weight on him. If not, I would advise against brumation since sometimes really skinny snakes may not take too well with brumation and not make it through.

If he is ready though, make sure he goes through at least 2 full weeks from eating his last meal, so he does not have any more food left in his stomach. Then simply place him in a part of your home that can get down to the temps of perhaps 50-65 degrees to induce brumation. If so, 2 to 3 months is what a lot of breeders have their snakes down, and they do fine with that timeline.

If the temps can't get as low as what was mentioned, by placing him in a dark closet for maybe the same amount of time, can trigger the same effect. I have had to do this with a snake of mine that, out of the blue, for a few years decided to want to brumate, and I was not able to put her in those temps. The dark closet worked fine and ended up being in the late 60s. If you were brumating him with the plans of breeding him though, I don't know if the closet trick would work in terms of having his egg cells mature. You may need it colder.

Of course, during brumation, provide him with fresh water often, as snakes still will drink.

Take care and keep us posted!

Billy







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Genesis 1:1

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