Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am getting mentally prepped for this spring (first breeding season) and had a few questions. I don't have an ideal place to brumate my snakes. Just an insulated garage. I don't know how cold it will actually get in the dead of winter so I don't want to risk a full brumation period. So my plan is to brumate early at the first signs of cold weather and pull them out of brumation when it gets nasty. This will probably give me a month tops to brumate them. Will this be long enough to get their reproductive cycles going? I know they can reproduce without brumation but want to make sure I do it right. Or at least as right as I am able. I just had a few questions on the specifics....
1. What is the coldest you would allow your snakes to get?
2. If a snake doesn't seem to "settle" into brumation mode, is it best to pull it back inside or just leave it until it settles?

3. The room temperature (inside) is usually 75-80. When pulling them out of brumation should I just bring them inside and leave their heat pads off for a week or so?

4. I have a female (w.c) that doesn't really recognise standing water as a water source.... She usually drinks from mistings and get water from her meals. How should I aproach this with brumation since she can't get water from eating? I don't think it would be wise to mist her at 50 degrees....

Thanks in advance for all of your help!
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0.1 Snow Corn "Hope"
1. Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Chunk" (Goonies)
.1 Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Peaches"
0.0.1 MO Locale Black Ratsnake "Molly" (Flogging Molly)

As we say in Missouri, "I ain't goin back to Missouri!"

1. What is the coldest you would allow your snakes to get?
Upper 40s.

2. If a snake doesn't seem to "settle" into brumation mode, is it best to pull it back inside or just leave it until it settles?
They always settle in for me. Most snakes "know" when they should be brumating, as it is triggered by light cycles and temperature.

3. The room temperature (inside) is usually 75-80. When pulling them out of brumation should I just bring them inside and leave their heat pads off for a week or so?
Yes, I think a gradual warm-up is best (although not everyone does that). I usually start off by putting the cages on the floor (where it's coolest) for a couple of days. Then I place then on a shelf for a couple days. Then I turn on heating devices.

4. I have a female (w.c) that doesn't really recognise standing water as a water source.... She usually drinks from mistings and get water from her meals. How should I aproach this with brumation since she can't get water from eating? I don't think it would be wise to mist her at 50 degrees....
You could mist her in a seperate container, dry her, and place her back in the brumation box. I never heard of a corn not recognizing standing water - that's very interesting!

Oh, and I wanted to mention that I've cooled corns for 3 weeks and gotten good breeding results - you don't need to do much with cooling them.

Tim

Third Eye

I have my snakes in a spare bedroom and it has one of those exhange fans in the window....not the nicest looking thing in the world, but it works.... i usually turn the haet on in that specific room just a lil....so its not like 10 degrees...i usually can stand 30s and 40s and sometimes 50s..... my whole room is heated to around 80 in the summer time.... but i usually turn the heat on a lil so when i'm checking on everyone i dont freeze to death-i'm a cold hater!!!

~kin
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~SNAKIES~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Corns:
.1 Normal (Gertrude)
1. unknown hypo? normal? (Romeo)
1.2 Miami Phase (Hector, Emily, Charlotte) thanks jeff!
1. Amel het Blizzard (Dunesbury)
1. Classic het Hypo, poss het Amel, Anery (Cobra)
1.1 Classics (Henry VIII, Cassy [Emilys babies])
.1 Amel (Pepperoni)
1.1 Hypo zig zags poss het Caramel (Bernard, Abegail)
.1 Classic het Hypo, Stripe (Gracie Lou) {Reduced black}
1.1 Anery het Motley (Lleroy, Persia)

Rats:
1.1 Black rats (Willard, Cecily)

Cal Kings:
1.1 Striped Cal Kings (Dweezil, Skunky)

Other:
0.0.1 Worm Snake

~~~~~~~~~~~~~LEOPARD GECKOS~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1. Normal het Midnight Blizzard (Mr. Spot)
0.1 Blizzard (Blitz) SHE WAS FOUND ALIVE!!!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~TURTLES~~~~~~~~~~~~
.1 white cheeked mud (Opel)
.1 snapping turtle (no name)

Brumation is not required for corn breeding. I got quite a few hatchlings this year (and good fertility rates), and none of my corns were brumated. If you're worried at all, just keep them up, warm, and fed through the winter. Corns are pretty good about laying eggs regardless.

-Kat
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This Space For Rent

Could you "spell out" how you go about doing this?
Last year I was able to brumate them...this year I don't know if I can...I want to know about this so I can decide if I want too do it this way....
The best I could do is put my snakes in my shed when the temps cool down but I'd have to bring them in went the temps really drop...
Thanks for any info...
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CD
Corns(Adults)
1.0 Snow
0.1 Banded Motley het Amel
0.1 Blizzard het Anery A
Corns(Sub-adult)
1.0 Bloodred het Pewter
1.0 Anerythristic

Sure. Keep your snakes as normal, keep feeding and watering as normal, keep cage cleaning as normal, keep temps as normal. Long about oh... February or so... start monitoring the females for sheds. After they shed, try putting males in with them. If nobody's interested, try after the next shed (and so on). You may want to try weekly too, if you're worried about missing a cycle, but typically post-shed is good enough.

-Kat
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This Space For Rent

It's that easy? On that schedule...it would be the same as what I had them on last year....
What are your egg counts? Hatch rate?
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CD
Corns(Adults)
1.0 Snow
0.1 Banded Motley het Amel
0.1 Blizzard het Anery A
Corns(Sub-adult)
1.0 Bloodred het Pewter
1.0 Anerythristic

>>It's that easy? On that schedule...it would be the same as what I had them on last year....
>>What are your egg counts? Hatch rate?

Most of my females laid in the 15-20 egg range, and the vast majority of eggs were fertile. I also got a decently high hatch rate this year. I don't think they actually started breeding until March or so, but you never know. Different climates may have different start dates.

-Kat
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This Space For Rent

I haven't brumated since late 2001 and have never had problems with breeding/fertility/hatch rates because of not brumating my corns.

So that's the 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006 breeding seasons with NO brumation.

I simply care for them as usual during the winter months, and let them figure out what time of the year it is based on natural sun/light cycles.

As long as they are in a room with a window that let's in some natural light you should be good to go. In my apartment my snake room faces north so at no point do they ever receive direct sunlight. And even with being in the room after sundown with a light on while I clean/feed, I've never had a problem with my corns 'cycling' themselves.

Hope this helps. Good Luck.

BB

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"Have you hugged your drummer today?" --- Me