Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Not a real big deal but this is what I'm always talkng about. Even though I'm dropping the night time temps, my males tend to cool themselves this time of year. This guy is always hiding under the shelf in this pic. It's nice and dark and that's where the heat is. Lately, he spends a lot of time on top of the shelf. Even though he has a full belly, he's hanging out in an area of the cage that's much cooler than he would normally prefer.

This is the first sign that he's preparing to mate.

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Mike Lockwood
www.tooscaley.com

Two of my males also came out of hiding to find cooler spots last night.

What temps are you running? Day vs night? As you may have seen I've recently upgraded my system and now have fairly precise control of all the cages.
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC)
0.2 kids (CBB, selectively bred from good stock)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
12.24 BRB
11.13 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Hey Dave,

68 is the NTL; 86 DTH.

I've often thought about heating my BRBs with ProProducts Radiant Heat Panels. They work so well with the green tree pythons. What I like the most tis that they aet up an actual gradient in the cage as opposed to a warm end/cool end.

The only reason I haven't don this with the rainbows is because I thught to get 84° on the floor, the upper parts of the cage would get realy hot. It seems like a waste of heat. What are you experiencing?
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Mike Lockwood
www.tooscaley.com

Hmmmm, I've got mine set to 74 DTH and 69 NTL so much cooler during the day. You're really going with a 18 degree delta? I have been focused on NTL and getting that down around 70ish with a 5 degree delta. Was wondering if 5 degrees was enough, was wondering if I should go to 10 but 18????

As to warm, the RHP's are such a soft heat source, no intense temps anywhere I'd think they wouldn't have a hard time maintaining a higher temp in our wood enclosures. The wood is such a good thermal barrier. I do wonder if the whole cage would heat up to 84?

>>Hey Dave,
>>
>>68 is the NTL; 86 DTH.
>>
>>I've often thought about heating my BRBs with ProProducts Radiant Heat Panels. They work so well with the green tree pythons. What I like the most tis that they aet up an actual gradient in the cage as opposed to a warm end/cool end.
>>
>>The only reason I haven't don this with the rainbows is because I thught to get 84° on the floor, the upper parts of the cage would get realy hot. It seems like a waste of heat. What are you experiencing?
>>-----
>>Mike Lockwood
>>www.tooscaley.com
-----
Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC)
0.2 kids (CBB, selectively bred from good stock)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
12.24 BRB
11.13 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

I just temp-gunned all the breeders cages before I shut them off for the night. DTH is between 81 and 83 in any one cage. So, a little cooler that I previously posted. If I have time in the morning, maybe I'll get the NTL's.
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Mike Lockwood
www.tooscaley.com

....It has been a warm winter so far here in the southeast. It does not matter how low I set the thermostats the cages are not gonna get below room temperure. Actually they stay a little warmer than night time low room temperatures because the cages hold the heat from the warmer daytime so well. Like Dave I have some problem with my Boa Constrictor cages keeping the entire snake room a little warmer than the rest of the house. I am going to keep feeding (especially the females) and wait for several weeks of colder weather before I introduce any males to the females.
GO GATORS!!!!
Jeff

>>I just temp-gunned all the breeders cages before I shut them off for the night. DTH is between 81 and 83 in any one cage. So, a little cooler that I previously posted. If I have time in the morning, maybe I'll get the NTL's.
>>-----
>>Mike Lockwood
>>www.tooscaley.com

Temp-gunned all the breeder cages at 5:30 am. They're all between 69 an 72 F.
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Mike Lockwood
www.tooscaley.com

Thanks for the temp readings. I know mine have been in that range for some time now. With the total shut down of heaters in the breeder cages at night even when the room temps were a few degres higher the breeder cage temps would drop to some small amount over room temp. And of course that was different depending on vertical location in the room. I know the lower cages were (and still are) going to very low 70's or high 60's.

Which do you feel is more critical, male or female cooling? I'm thinking back to last year and while I can't say for certain, I'm thinking Lefty was in a upper section for cooling and maybe that's why he did not perform last year.

For your T-stats, have you not lowered them at all for DTH? Only shut off at night for night time cooling?
-----
Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC)
0.2 kids (CBB, selectively bred from good stock)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
12.25 BRB
12.14 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

This is just conjecture. But, then again, so is most of what I do. I would say that cooling is important for both sexes but at different times. Males cool a little earlier in the season. I've heard that this is associated with the production of sperm cells. This is reasonable. Don't we produce more viable sperm at slightly lower temps? It seems to me that my females don't start actively seeking cooler temperatures until after they've started copulating with a male. If the above is true, then perhaps the females are tring to keep those sperm alive inside their bodies until ova are released to be fertilized. I strongly suspect that as soon as ovulation occurs, females will seek out warmer temps and stay there for most of their gestation.

I don't think that the point of the cooling period is to mimick seasonal changes the way it is in colubrids. What kind of seasonal tempertaure fluctuation is there in their home range? I don't think much.

I've never lowered my daytime high temperatures. I think I picked this up form Ross and Marzeck. I'm not saying you can't.

Interesting observation on your male. During the 2005 season I had a male who I saw copulate with two females. Neither of which produced offspring. In 2006, he hit 2 homeruns. Maybe I'll lower his NTL just a bit.

Sorry of the long reply. It's just such a good topic. Nice pics up above by the way. Gotta admire those anerys
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Mike Lockwood
www.tooscaley.com

I can't give breeding tips but as far as computers go I can offer this one,

I use google notebook to easily save this kind of information. I can get to it very easily after that from any computer that I'm on.

Check it out.
Jamie

http://www.google.com/notebook