I do love those mex mex. That's a mighty nice pair and they definitely seem to know what they are doing. A number of people have had good luck breeding without a winter cool down.
You've probably heard about him… there is a pioneer in the industry that has clearly shown that with many species of kingsnakes, a brumation cycle isn't required at all and has several decades of experience to stand behind the claim. What seems to make the difference is more extreme temperature gradients and environmental conditions for the snakes to choose from, and letting them decide what to do and when to do it. He would provide his snakes huge enclosures that offer many more temperature choices than most of us would have space for, he would keep one pair in a space that many of us keep 50 snakes in. Years back, he devised this arrangement he called Retes boards (some call it a Retes Stack or Retes Ladder)... essentially a tall stack of boards that mimics a tin and wood pile with heat applied at the top as the sun might do. He devised this to test temp selection and digestion, and it worked extremely well. When they were ready to feed, his snakes would come up, feed, then gradually work their way down to the much cooler lower levels of the stack to rest until they were ready to feed again. This is how he regulated feeding and temps... he let the snakes decide what to do and when it was time to do it. When they came up… he fed. Letting them choose from more extreme temps and following their schedule, not his, he had them cycling and breeding on their own schedule, year-round as I understand it, with good fertility.
The problem most of us have is that we keep snakes in plastic tubs with maybe a 15 degree temp gradient at best, and they have nowhere to go to find the temps they need to use to do things right. We need tall vertical enclosures with many levels, and heat on the top, and not small horizontal ones that are both not warm enough or cool enough with lots of choices in between.
Lucky for us though... our animals are adaptable enough to be able to reproduce extremely well living in these small plastic tubs, and on schedules that work for both us and the snakes. So we are able to keep really cool collections and not just a couple pair!
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Mike
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