Hi Tom,



I've noticed for many years that some of my snakes appear to gain weight during brumation. Perhaps they hadn't drunk recently when they were weighed at the onset of brumation, and had just gulped a bunch of water prior to the later weigh-in. That's the only logical explanation i can think of, that and the possibility of scale malfunction or variance. My scales read accurately generally--weigh a snake at 487 grams, say, and take it out of the weigh-basked, turn the scale off and on, and weigh it again, and it'll weigh at 487. Maybe over a 3 mo period the accuracy varies, but it has SEEMED to me, at least, to be a genuine phenomenon. It's usually a very modest gain, and others lose a little weight during brumation--usually also a very modest amount, virtually negligible. Every once in a while an animal loses a lot--perhaps due to defecating a couple times during brumation. Though i always fast them at warm temps for at least a couple weeks before lowering temps, i'm always surprised to see fecals showing up even months into brumation.



peace

terry

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