Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Next year will me my first time attempting to breed my San Diego Gophers. Infact it's my first time breeding snakes. I am setting up dates in my calendar for preparation and need a lot of help. I've been searching the net and reading books on the subject, but a lot of the suggested dates for pre/post burmation are contradicting. Some say to stop feeding in October and some say in December before emptying the snake's system and preparing to cool them down! When is the ideal time to stop feeding, when to burmate, when to bring out of burmation, and when to pair up the male with the female? I want to get it just right so I don't cause any stress or harm to my snakes. If someone could please post or email me with a breeding guideline and suggested dates and procedures I would really appreciate it. Thanks a lot.

you live. We basically need to wait for the temperature to drop down to a hibernation temp. unless you have a warm and cool cycle on your hibenaculum. Del and I live in Bakersfield, CA. The temps don't get down to the 50's until late November. Here's how we gauge our hibernation. We put them down Thanksgiving weekend and bring them out the weekend after Superbowl. That's the basic time frame we work towards. The snakes get their last meal 3 weeks prior to putting them down. Now we have to gauge how the temps are going around Thanksgiving. This year we put them down on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. We had already planned to leave them down a couple extra weeks because Del felt they may have not gotten a good cycle the year before since we didn't produce as we should have. We cycled them 2 degrees lower and brought them out 3 weeks after super bowl I believe. I'll need to look at the calender to check for sure, but I can do that if you'd like. We've always felt that one of the main things is to keep them in as much of complete darkness as you can to get a good brumation cycle. Outside of a couple pairs that we didn't know if they would go this year or not, Del had a very good breeding year with his bullsnakes and pines. Brumation can be associated with a breeders personal preferrence and experience so you should get alot of varying ranges with time and schedules. Del has written an article on Breeding Pituophis that is on our website. Feel free to email and ask him any questions.

www.kernreptile.com

I hope that addresses some of your post. Good luck

Terry

>>Next year will me my first time attempting to breed my San Diego Gophers. Infact it's my first time breeding snakes. I am setting up dates in my calendar for preparation and need a lot of help. I've been searching the net and reading books on the subject, but a lot of the suggested dates for pre/post burmation are contradicting. Some say to stop feeding in October and some say in December before emptying the snake's system and preparing to cool them down! When is the ideal time to stop feeding, when to burmate, when to bring out of burmation, and when to pair up the male with the female? I want to get it just right so I don't cause any stress or harm to my snakes. If someone could please post or email me with a breeding guideline and suggested dates and procedures I would really appreciate it. Thanks a lot.

Breeders in your area and see when they cycle their critters. Pits seem to adapt to most brumation cycles regardless of their origins. Give me a yell if have any questions I am not as gifted as Terry with a keyboard but I can hold my own LOL!!!!

Later-Del

to anwer the questions? LOL. You just need to gauge putting them down and bringing them out around a couple drinking events. LOL.

>>Breeders in your area and see when they cycle their critters. Pits seem to adapt to most brumation cycles regardless of their origins. Give me a yell if have any questions I am not as gifted as Terry with a keyboard but I can hold my own LOL!!!!
>>
>>Later-Del