Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Over the years I have heard that black milks don’t need to be cooled to the extremes as our North American milks. I cooled my black milks to the upper 60s last winter and had no success with breeding them this year. When put together the male locked up with the female and no eggs were ever dropped.
Both male and female are nice and fat, not obese and kept between 75 and 78 degrees.
Should I bring the temps down even more in the cooling process?
Also should I cool them in the same fashion as our kings, milks, and gophers but at a slightly warmer temp?
I normally keep the kings, milks, and gophers in an ice box, in different storage box’s, with blue ice at 52 to 54 degrees.
Thanks for any help:
Jasonmc

You will be fine cooing them at the same temps as your other kings and milks. It can't hurt.

However, I have had success with them cooling only to mid 60s and they bred fine with that as well. Its my personal belief they will breed if you put them in a dark place, like a closet in a spare room, for a few months without feeding even if the temps don't drop below 60.

Dave

DNS Reptiles

I keep them in my home office. Is it possible that the female could have stressed and denied the sperm or absorbed the eggs? I definetly watched them lock up and even took pics.
Maybe I should just isolate them during the breeding period.

Thanks:
Jason mc

Dave couldn't have said this any better. As you may already know, because of their natural distribution they can be hibernated at milder temperatures with any real problems arising. Although, I find it much easier to simply brumate them along with all the other milksnakes in the collection to ensure fertility. I guess it comes down to personal preference really but you may want to try keeping cooler than usual to see what happens.
Good luck.
Nathan Wells

Jason:

The past two years I've cooled my trio differently and it didn't a huge difference.
Last year, they chilled out around 59-60 degrees and one female doubled clutched (15 and 7 eggs) and the other gave me 11 eggs. All were fertile and hatched.
This year, they were in a differnet room and only got down t around 64 or 65 degrees. Both years, all lights were turned off. The difference this year was they laid their eggs very late (July 29 and august 4) but both clutches were 13 fertile eggs each. All but one hatched.
Hope this helps.

Rob