This is what I find odd here, theres little biology and a lot of hocus pocus/guessing.



In the first paragragh, there is rationalization. That is, your hoping what your doing has something to do with nature. Its more or less meaningless. No what your doing is not what they do in nature, nor does it have to be. So its only rationalization.



Its so very very simple. When a female is ready to copulate, she contains easy to feel ovum, so you palpate them. You feel ovum they WILL BREED. No magic, no guessing, just plain simple husbandry. Heres the funny part, you can do this any time of year and you may be very surprised as to what you find.(actually, a female will copulate about 5 days before palable ovum can be felt) Once you can palpate them, you have about two weeks, so there is no problem waiting until you can feel the ovum.



Second, you said your waiting until march or because of the installation of heat tape. Sir, no offense, that is totally meaningless to the snakes. They will cycle based on readiness. When they are ready to cycle, they will, it will not matter what month or if heat tapes are available. As your one female may have told U.



To cycle does not require the addition of heat, a slight raise in outside temps will do. It takes some heat to develop and keep the ovum/eggs viable.



I hate the term hibernation/brumation, the reason is, keepers use them out of context. For instance, colubrids use 55 to 65F as a base temp year a round. In otherwords, they are active at these temps.



Hibernation is taking an animals metabolism below where it normally can be active, to decrease body functions to a point, they cannot move normally. Lets say, below 50F, with 50 to 55F being questionable. I say, lets say, because I have recorded many species, including boas and pythons out and active at temps slightly above 50F



The REAL point is, snakes DO NOT REQUIRE HIBERNATION to reproduce. In fact, its can be deleterious to reproduction. Hibernation is a behavior to withstand, extremely poor conditions. Brumation was a term used for escaping hot and dry. As in doing down to avoid inhospitable heat and dryness. That term appears to have changed.



The point is, it does not matter what you call these things you think your doing, IT does matter, what they the snakes are doing. So a simple husbandry trick is to palpate for ovum, tells you when they are ready to copulate, and it does not matter what you say they are doing. In other words, its accurate in spite of our errors and boy do we make them.



The funny part is, its so easy to do and does no harm to the animal, not in the least. The key is DO NOT SQUEEZE, simply let the female crawl thru your fingers, as if your fingers were a crack slighly narrower then she body. Consider, they do this in nature on a daily basis. As long as they move their body throught your fingers, its fine. You will be surprised what you learn, its a whole new world. Cheers

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