Joe! I'm a little late to the party, but what the hell... Here's my system:

I'm in south-central Montana. During the active season, my animals are kept on racks in a daylight basement with belly heat. The thermal gradient in their enclosures ranges from approximately 88F on the warm end to 70F on the cool end. Many of my animals, mostly the northern clime critters, naturally go off feed in the late summer or early fall. This is probably a biological clock thing and also influenced by the change in length of daylight. These animals are removed from their heat sources after several weeks of fasting and allowed to sit at ambient room temperature (hovers in the low 70's). Any that look like they're losing weight go immediately into a refridgeration unit at approximately 45F. The others sit at room temp. for several more weeks, until the crawl space where they spend the winter reaches a cool enough temperature that I don't feel I have to keep an eye on them all the time (generally below 60F). The temperature in this crawl space hovers around 50F for most of the winter, which seems to work well for the temperate animals.

My tropical critters stay up and feeding until November (or so). Then they're removed from the heat and placed in a darker location at room temp. (again, 70F) or slightly below. I've had some bad experiences cooling the tropical critters much below 60F, so I don't allow them to get that cold these days. Mid to low 60's seems about right, especially in conjunction with a reduced photo period.

The results of this routine are favorable, too! One of this year's hatchlings:
Pale Milksnake (L. t. multistrata) - Thomas Co., NE


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-Cole

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