Reptile & Amphibian Forums

...in feb.?

I could never understand this. Has the season changed where you live? Is the grass green and the trees blooming outside? Has spring arrived?

i was kind of wondering the same thing?? I figured they wanted to get the jump on the breeding season..

~ Mike

In NM. I think we still have a lot of winter left here. My snakes will stay cool for at least another 4-6 weeks and maybe more.

Last year it was futile for me. We never really got any winter weather last year, and spring came early. I had more breeding/incubation problems last year than any year previous, also. Personally I'm glad that we've had a wet.. cold.. winter so far, here in the southwest. We needed it, and I think it's doing my snakes some good too.

Spring will come soon enough......

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Vichris

Vichris Variables

i warm up my snakes because i cooled them in mid nov. plus i noticed on the forum that most people has been warming up their snakes so i just follow. not good idea? i was afarid to cool my snakes for 4 months or so. i did still want my snakes to be cool. can i put them back down? please let me know soon, thanks

I wouldn't say your doing something wrong. I would say that many reptiles brumate from mid October to mid April or even May in most parts of the USA. It probably does more good than harm to brumate them for at least 3 months. It won't hurt to put them back in the cooler as long as you haven't fed them.

I'm sure some others have a different opinion on this subject. I'm just stating my experience.
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Vichris

Vichris Variables

alright thanks, i think i better put the snakes back just in case it will affect breeding by warming them today well i started yeserday.

I feel the same way...

That shocked me reading that here a couple times.

Hell, I think I just put mine down about 2 weeks ago, if that.

And it's cold as ever here. No plans for me to take them out anytime soon...

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Mike
KingPin Reptiles Inc.
www.freewebs.com/mikesnake
www.captivebredforum.com

Rainer, here in Tampa the grass is as green as it can be considering our lack of rain in the previous months. We have just gotten a decent shower the last two days or so and stuff like azaleas are blooming for sure...That said, I think the rain has ushered in the coolest air of the year.
40's maybe....
I stick with Feb. 14th or so since I can remember it easiest...
:Mark
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Surrender Dorothy!

www.crimsonking.funtigo.com

Rainer, here in Tampa the grass is as green as it can be considering our lack of rain in the previous months. We have just gotten a decent shower the last two days or so and stuff like azaleas are blooming for sure...That said, I think the rain has ushered in the coolest air of the year.
40's maybe....
I stick with Feb. 14th or so since I can remember it easiest...
:Mark

Mark-
People from Florida and Australia don't count.

My point was I wait for the spring air outside to naturally stimulate the snakes to breed. I tried bringing my snakes up in feb one year and that was the worst year I ever had. The snakes still waited to breed in late april. Florida is to close to the equator to be considered the norm for most of us in the CONUS.

I remember reading Kaufelds book a long taime ago (Snakes the Keeper and the Kept) and never forget the story how he tried to keep his bullsnakes feeding during winter . They refused food even though the temps wewre up until a mild day in march. Ever since I tend to follow this simple advice.

One thing I do though is take some of my adults and turn the heat up on them and feed them if they need some extra girth. Then I wait 2 weeks and turn the heat strip down a bit. Does not effect them from producing..My snake room gets down to 50F and I keep the heatstrip on low all winter anyway. The snakes mostly sit away from the heat on the opposite cool end of the cage anayway.

well ive started my warmup process here(houston,tx.) i stopped feeding and starting reducing light cycles in nov.and turned off all heat tapes by dec they were in complete darkness w/o any heat. average temps in room have been 50-55(though some 40-45's we actually got a lil cold this year!)for 2months of darkness. ive now turned on heat tapes raised room temps to 70 or so and started light at 8hrs a day which i will increase to 24 over the next month along with heavy feedings esp.for males. this is what works for me i still usally dont get breeding activity until april/may but a few will/do breed in march, now i could keep them "in the dark" for another month save me some work(some years i do/have) but im ready to get them all up feed them admire them,etc. 8 weeks is plenty of time imho ive succesfully done it at 4 weeks but ive also had success w/o ANY sort of brumation at all but thats another story... and imho allot of it has to do with species.
species X brumation time period=successful reproduction sure... but getula,triangulum,etc. pretty much ALL n.american temperate zoned colubrids are EZ and or forgiving when it comes to those requisits...I say let the feedings begin! and that it twas a sadsadsad day in the life of the rodent colony with many darkdays ahead, the time of numbers has begun!
hope everyone has a great seasongame on ,,,,,,,thomas

You leave the light on for 24 hours? Am I reading this right?
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Diego

Diego & Tiffany's Zoo:
SNAKES
2.4.0 Corn Snakes (Different morphs)
1.1.0 Hypo Everglades Rat Snakes
2.1.0 Baird's Rat Snakes
1.2.0 Trans-Pecos Rat Snakes
0.2.0 Trinket Rat Snake
1.0.0 Japanese Rat Snake
1.1.0 Salt and Pepper Bull Snakes
0.1.0 Amel Pacific Gopher Snake
1.0.0 Het Amel San Diego Gopher Snake
0.1.0 San Diego Gopher Snake
3.2.0 Sonoran Gopher Snakes
0.1.0 Amel Sonoran Gopher Snakes
1.1.0 Mexican Black Kingsnake
2.1.0 Gray Banded Kingsnakes (1.1 River Road, 1.0 Non-Locale Specific)
1.0.0 Hypermelanistic California Kingsnake
0.1.0 Albino High White California Kingsnake
0.2.0 California Kingsnakes
0.1.0 Thayeri Kingsnake
0.1.0 Florida Kingsnake
1.1.0 Boa Constrictors
0.1.0 Dumeril's Boa
2.0.0 Rosy Boas (Mexican & Mid Baja)
1.1.0 Kenyan Sand Boas
0.1.0 Indonesian Dwarf Pacific Boa
1.1.0 Ball Pythons
1.0.0 Woma Python
1.1.0 Cape York Spotted Pythons
1.1.0 Macklot's Pythons
1.1.0 Western Hognoses
1.1.0 Malagasy Giant Hognoses
1.0.0 Blacktail Cribo

LIZARDS
1.0.0 Frilled Dragon
3.1.0 Bearded Dragons (2 Normal, 1 RedXGold, 1 Citrus)
0.1.0 Eastern Collared Lizard
1.0.0 African Fat-Tail Gecko
0.1.0 Merauke Blue Tongue Skink
1.4.0 Leopard Geckos
1.0.1 Yellow Niger Uromastyx
1.1.0 Chuckwalla
0.1.0 Banded Gecko

FROGS
2.2.0 Southern Bell Frogs
1.0.1 Green Tree Frogs
1.0.0 Bubbling Kassina
1.1.1 White's Tree Frogs
0.0.2 Gold Frogs

yes after all my snakes are up & eating usally by end of feb. my lights in snake room are on 24-7 for the most part until sept/oct when i start reducing light, by dec. they are totally dark again, most of my breeders are kept in racks and all have secure dark hides as well as deep pine shavings to tunnel in so none are getting direct bright lights just ambient room lighting, its just easier for me to keep the light on during this time for several reasons, but certainly not a requirement of any kind,,,,,,,,,thomas

I see. Thanks for explaining that.

Good luck this season!
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Diego

Diego & Tiffany's Zoo:
SNAKES
2.4.0 Corn Snakes (Different morphs)
1.1.0 Hypo Everglades Rat Snakes
2.1.0 Baird's Rat Snakes
1.2.0 Trans-Pecos Rat Snakes
1.1.0 Trinket Rat Snake
1.0.0 Japanese Rat Snake
1.1.0 Salt and Pepper Bull Snakes
0.1.0 Amel Pacific Gopher Snake
1.0.0 Het Amel San Diego Gopher Snake
0.1.0 San Diego Gopher Snake
3.2.0 Sonoran Gopher Snakes
0.1.0 Amel Sonoran Gopher Snakes
1.1.0 Mexican Black Kingsnake
2.1.0 Gray Banded Kingsnakes (1.1 River Road, 1.0 Non-Locale Specific)
1.0.0 Hypermelanistic California Kingsnake
0.1.0 Albino High White California Kingsnake
0.2.0 California Kingsnakes
0.1.0 Thayeri Kingsnake
0.1.0 Florida Kingsnake
1.1.0 Boa Constrictors
0.1.0 Dumeril's Boa
2.0.0 Rosy Boas (Mexican & Mid Baja)
1.1.0 Kenyan Sand Boas
0.1.0 Indonesian Dwarf Pacific Boa
1.1.0 Ball Pythons
1.0.0 Woma Python
1.1.0 Cape York Spotted Pythons
1.1.0 Macklot's Pythons
1.1.0 Western Hognoses
1.1.0 Malagasy Giant Hognoses
1.0.0 Blacktail Cribo

LIZARDS
1.0.0 Frilled Dragon
3.1.0 Bearded Dragons (2 Normal, 1 RedXGold, 1 Citrus)
0.1.0 Eastern Collared Lizard
1.0.0 African Fat-Tail Gecko
0.1.0 Merauke Blue Tongue Skink
1.4.0 Leopard Geckos
1.0.1 Yellow Niger Uromastyx
1.1.0 Chuckwalla
0.1.0 Banded Gecko

FROGS
2.2.0 Southern Bell Frogs
1.0.1 Green Tree Frogs
1.0.0 Bubbling Kassina
1.1.1 White's Tree Frogs
0.0.2 Gold Frogs

Lol, thanks for clarifying that for me I was like ? I've never read that before. But yeah I guess that does'nt sound that bad.
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-J.Hill

doesn't giving them a choice of temperatures apply to this time of year, too hahaha.....?
i used to get my kings brumating on thanksgiving and start to get them up on valentine's day. holiday to holiday worked well for me for years.
daveb

Still pretty much my schedule, Dave....
:Mark

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Surrender Dorothy!

www.crimsonking.funtigo.com

I knew those days were good for something!!!

that eastern I got from you is quite a good looking little bugger. I bet he puts on some size this year, too. he's been brumating but he's one I am looking forward to getting up and going again.

...that's his daddy in the pic above....
:Mark
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Surrender Dorothy!

www.crimsonking.funtigo.com

the first time when I let them be at the mercy of the Spring temps, until mid-March or so, when w/o supplemental heat they would be eager to eat (then I'd turn the heat on.) After that I never rushed warming them up again. I followed with the Cal kings the next year and never looked back. I'm with you on this one.

First of all, with my cal kings, I don't believe that an extremely long cooling is needed to induce the reproductive behavior. I use a short cooling period, and not a very cold one, because I feel that it is less stressfull on the snakes and it lengthens the breeding / growing season. I put my snakes down in november, and bring them up in early feb.

Also, if I waited until it was spring here in Vermont, my snakes would not be breeding until july! and then they would have to go back down in sept!

I have always had lots of success bringing them up early and frequently get the chance to triple clutch a female (not that I put them back with a male that often, but I could, and I have). My females all double clutch and then have several months to feed before winter.

lastly its nice to be able to offer neonates for sale earlier. I personally like to get quite a few meals into my little guys before I sell them and earlier hatches allow more time before the summer shows etc.

I am just curious if anyone else notices that over the years your collection changes or "acclimates" to your specific locale.
I mean, do some of your snakes, originally from quite different climates than they are in now, cycle and breed just as the "local" species??
I think that cb animals over time have been pretty adaptable, but I am also wondering about wc animals.
Obviously some have even had success with "reversing" their snakes' natural cycles and get them to breed and lay when most of ours are overwintering. For the commercial guy I guess this would be good (having hatchlings at otherwise "off" seasons). Most of the guys I know of that do this are in other countries like Germany and their snakes' environments are artificially controlled most of the year.
Does anyone here have a species or account that has changed significantly from what the same(wc)would do?
:Mark
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Surrender Dorothy!

www.crimsonking.funtigo.com

It will be interesting to see how the Trans Pecos rat snake colony does, they are supposed to be very late breeders and some hatchlings overwinter in their shells! My west Texas splendidas vs. my south coast splendidas and holbrooki will be interesting as well. This will be my first year for all but the holbrooki so it will be an interesting year. I have some L.t. annulatta and many Pantherophis to go this year as well. What the heck jump on in!
Todd Hughes

The adults are active in February before I turn the heat on. When I turn the heat on in February depends on how active they are. I usually warm up the non-feeder babies around now to give me time with them before I am busy with the adults.

Putting them down is sometimes tricky too as we often get 80+ deg days in December, I shoot for the end of November but it is sometimes into December. This year has been colder than normal though.

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Rick
Never Enough
Reptiles

It has in south Texas, I will bring mine up in 2-3 weeks. Green as all get out!
Todd Hughes

Todd,
Very pretty snake there!
I am so sick of this Tx. weather. I went out in shorts early Sat. afternoon, cause here it was that warm... and was indoors at the practice room for a long time. Came out and BAM!! The temps had dropped at least 15 degrees or so.
Tx. weather can't seem to ever make up its' mind.

Billy
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Genesis 1:1

Thanks man! Yeah, if you don't like the weather in Texas, wait 15 minutes, lol! We have had our wet spell and a pretty good one. Went out Sunday and flippe an atrox and a meahlmorrum, sp.? as well as 3 narrowmouth frogs/toads all on the surface under a.c. I think they are telling me it is about time in our semi-tropical zone. We will have a few more cool snaps but it is 50 here tonite and I don't see it getting too much colder! Hang in there, rest of the continental U.S.!
Todd Hughes

I put my snakes down by simply opening a window in the room and this keeps things at about 50 or so through the yucky parts of winter, but lately the weathers been in the 50s outside, and this in turn doesnt seem to affect the room temps for whatever reason.
I have a few hots that are getting low on body weight, and I really dont have the option to split my collection up and keep some warm and others cool.
So I closed the window last week, and now I've got some folks who are shedding and pooping (which REALLY surprised me in a bad way because I gave everone ample time to poo before I put them down) so I dont have much choice now then to jump on the bandwagon and follow their behaviors. This year it seems they're running the show, not me.
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Tom

"The more people I meet, the more I like my snakes"