Thanks for all that, Mike!

I agree that husbandry can be (or become) over complicated - I have been guilty of that myself, at times. I have used the newspaper laid on top of aspen for many snakes too - works for some that most folks probably would not susupect - Chinese beauties being one, and getula of all kinds like it. It works as a moist hide too, as you can mist the newspaper - and it will dry throughout the day, and will not become moldy like sphagnum eventually will. I also find the sheet of newspaper on top of aspen a convenient platform for feeding snakes on so they don't ingest aspen along with the prey item. I agree with taking "experts'" advice with a grain of salt - and the same with most literature in print.

If I had a basement, I would surely use it as a brumation room - but we only have one floor, which is a little above ground. This is not even "typical" Texas climate, as we live in southern coastal subtropical Texas - "Hurricane Alley". I only have about 1.5 - 2 months (sporadically) of real brumation temps here, which is why I use a small window unit air conditioner to try to keep temps in the mid 60's for at least 2.5 - 3 months. This is extremely expensive electric bill wise, and I try to use the a/c sparingly. When outside temps rise into the 70's or even 80's (yep, it happens) during the middle of winter here, it also makes the floor warmer, so it doesn't make much difference where vertically I have the snakes in the room.

As a note, the year before last, when I first started brumating my green rats for breeding - I warmed them and fed them 3 times during the winter, and they still mated and produced good eggs - 2 clutches ASMOF. They were cooled sporadically, and had a warm spot in their tubs throughout brumation - so this is both using Cranston's methods plus playing it by ear, so to speak - doing what I thought was right for the snakes.

The idea of keeping Mandarins doesn't really scare me, as I've kept even colder winter snakes (dione) than them, and successfully bred them too. I am really just getting sort of tired of having to cool stuff to such extremes, and leaning more toward keeping more tropical / subtropical snakes like the rhinos, green rats, etc. - which I can get by with cooling in an unheated room. My buddy, John is probably more interested in Mandarins than I am, and he has a super brumation chamber he uses for his montane kingsnakes - so I might just wait for him to get some and visit his to see how I like them...
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-Toby Brock
Southwestern Center for Herpetological Research

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