Information that follows is most of an email I sent to a Drymarchon breeder in California. I continue to meet some quality snake people on this forum and elsewhere. Good luck to us all this year, including keepers of fast moving frequent poopers.
Procedure that follows is what I've done with Texas and Eastern indigos for the past few years. I believe that the first step is to have the right snakes and that they'll breed under varying conditions.
All snakes are kept in 4 ft. Vision cages. Breeder males are caged at lower level in snake room in 18 in. high cages. Well insulated 8x14 ft. room happens to face South and is heated with two hot-oil heaters, one at each end. Temps are already cooling to around 70 at night in males' cages, mid 70's during the day. Females' cages are higher up and a few degrees warmer. They're in 14 in. high cages. By the end of October I'll have males in high 60's at night, 70's during the day. Females will stay a few degrees warmer. If they spike to 80's occassionally, no problem. By mid-November males' cages are in low 60's at night and a few degrees warmer during the day. Females' cages are always warmer, may get to high 70's during the day. I pretty much keep these temperatures until January.
Snake room has skylights and by November I turn off all cage lights until January. I also keep room light off except for cleaning, etc.
Clean drinking water is always present. Because of dry air generally present in the room from October to May I pour about a half cup of water in each cage at least every other day.
Substrate is newspaper.
Starting by the second week in November I introduce a female to male's cage and leave her for 4 or 5 days. You may not observe mating but distinctive odor often follows and smears may be present in male's cage when female is removed. After a week or so I'll introduce a different female if that's part of breeding plan and leave her. I keep rotating females. If another male is available I place selected females in his cage, alternating between males. This year I'm only using one male for two Texas females and one male for three Eastern females.
Time following a shed seems to be prime for indigos to mate. Introduction schedule will have to be altered to work around times when snakes are preparing to shed. Maybe it makes no difference. I don't know if under natural conditions a male encountering a pre-shed female would wait for her to shed first or if a pre-shed male would wait until after his own shedding.
Females will feed less often during this time, maybe not at all. Males generally won't feed. Because of low temps I don't offer males food anymore.
At the end of December I gradually increase time of cage lighting so that by mid-January cage lights are on about 6 hr/day and room light is on about 8 hr. This is about time length I keep for the rest of the year. Natural light still is present through skylights.
At the end of December I increase room temperature to get females' cages to low 80's for part of the day and high 70's at night. Because they're closer to cold snake room floor, warming the males for the rest of the winter has been a problem. Last winter I installed heat cables under males' cages along the front. These are on from about 11:00PM to 7:00 AM. Worked well.
Females will start eating well in January until they get close egg-laying in late March. Males will start feeding when they're ready and are back to regular schedule by March. I feed all of indigos f/t rats, no chicks, frogs or fish. Rats are from a local breeder who provides quality diet to his rodents. Longest time they've been in freezer is two weeks. One year I supplemented adult's diet with snakes and dropped vitamins on other feeder animals. Didn't seem to make any difference.
