Hey what's up.

I would first of all say there are several things that can determine whether a zonata will "shut off" or not. The chances are better that it WON'T if it's captive bred, and has never been intentionally cooled. Normally, keepers will do this for the primary purpose of breeding. I have a long term, captive adult male that I have no intention of breeding, therefor I don't significantly cool him in the winter and he's more than content to continue his normal functions, even through the winter months. If I intentionally dropped his heat, he would most likely "shut down". This is not to say every zonata, regardless, will function this way. An animal who's used to being cycled, either intentionally, for breeding purposes, or from having been in the wild, could likely choose to "shut down" and stop eating no matter what, because that's been their regular cycle all along. Additionally, its not only the temp that can dictate what they do. The air pressure also fluctuates when the seasons change - and make no mistake about it, snakes know and sense this as well. This is much more difficult to control unless you are housing them in a completely climate controlled room.

My advice would be (because she appears thin according to what you've said) to offer her food frequently; every few days, and if it's hungry, it'll eat. I would not force it to cool. Try to maintain as natural a climate gradient as possible. This means a warm side, a cool side, a dryer side, and then, and very important, humidity. This can easily be accomplished by providing it a "moist" hide with regularly dampened moss or vermiculite. My zonatas spend most of their time in these moist, cool hides.

You'll find, if you scan many of the previous threads over the years, providing options to any and all reptiles, is the name of the game. If you do this, your snake will tell you what it wants and prefers.

The preceeding is what I do, and soley based on my knowledge and experience. I hope it helps you. I can almost certainly gaurantee there'll be others that will add their input too....hopefully they do. But for those who wanna critique and talk crap (as is often the case), I'll just go ahead and say to those, you can kiss my ass now.

Happy Trails!

[ Show Entire Thread ]