Posted by:
Sunherp
at Wed Jan 30 10:58:34 2008 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by Sunherp ]
Hmmm... I think I remember your original post. Let me see if I got the story right:
You had 3 non-feeding campbelli, of which one was exposed to sub-optimal temps and 2 just didn't show interest. You were keeping them at a constant 80F. You put the two non-interested critters in cooling (60F) an kept the other (the one exposed to 63F for a night) up and raised the temp of the room to 84F. It fed after two weeks. The others you brought out of cooling after five weeks and put them into the 84F room.
Now, I have a few questions. Was the actual cage temp 80F to begin with (before you heated things up), or just the thermostat on the wall? That can make a huge difference. Do the snakes have a supplemental heat source (other than ambient room temp.)?
Some experienced snake-keepers use the "constant heat" approach (no thermal gradient), which it sounds like you're using. It can be very tricky to get things right, and some keepers who use this approach report a lesser feeding resonse than keepers who allow a thermal gradient. A good friend of mine uses the "constant heat" approach, but provides a thermal gradient for animals with feeding problems and ovulating females. Snakes will naturally use a range of temperatures. I feel that 80F on a wall thermostat may be too cool to get much of a feeding response out of campbelli. A reading of 80F on the wall may mean that the cage is really only 76F, or so.
Bringing the temperature of the room up to 84F may have been the ultimate trigger in getting the animals to feed. In fact, I strongly suggest that this is the case. The cooling at 60F for 5 weeks MAY have been irrelevant. With a sample size of 3, and not knowing the details of your husbandry, it's hard to say. Cooling non-feeders oftend DOES bring them back into feeding mode, if they're allowed proper temperatures when they are warmed back up. Either way, keep us postd, and if you have feeding trouble again, I'd look into providing a good thermal gradient (maybe 75F on the cool side to 88F on the warm side).
Just my 2 cents...
-Cole
L. t. polyzona
Thomas Co., NE L. t. multistrata
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RE: Experiment...with a sample of 3 - Sunherp, Wed Jan 30 10:58:34 2008 