Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have corn snakes, kingsnakes, a pueblan and a black rat. In the past I have placed these snakes in brumation from Dec thru February - warming them up early March. I do not breed these snakes and do it mostly to give me a break over the Christmas holidays. All snakes are mature. The last two years I have had two of my female corn snakes lay eggs, one female corn laid 15, the other 25! As mentioned neither was bred but male snake cages are adjacent. Laying these eggs diminishes body weight and it takes me several months to feed back up to weight. Also, in the spring some of the males go off feed for a few weeks. All snakes are healthy and fed every two weeks F/T mice. I keep all snakes in a well constructed, well-insulated out building. The building is air conditioned in the summer. This fall I had a gas line run to the building and installed a natural gas vent-less heater. I keep one window open a bit so there is a good exchange of air. Also I have a CO detector. This winter I keep the building at 70-72 degrees in the daytime with nighttime temps about 66 degrees. One of my E. Kings who is in very good weight and has never refused mice has not eaten in 5 weeks; the other a female black rat has not eaten in 4 weeks. One of my male corns who usually goes off feed somewhat even prior to past brumations hasn't eaten in three weeks. I keep the lights on until about 7:30 P.M. in this building. Do these conditions seem O.K. for my not wanting to bruminate? Do you see any problems in what I'm doing? Thanks much.

I think your temp of 66 to 70-72 is a bit cool to expect them to continue feeding, they could easily regurgitate with those cool temps. If you cooled it a bit more to 55 or so, you would definitely be cool enough for them to brumate without them using up their body reserves. As the temp stand right now, it is just cool enough to keep them from feeding, but not cool enough to keep their weight reserves from being depleted for the entire winter.

Easterns and black Rats being from more cold areas of the country will often shut down indefinitely for the winter, many times regardless of temps because of the shortened natural photo-period.

I would go ahead and brumate them myself, this will be better for the snakes and give you a break from worrying about feeding.

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com

>>I think your temp of 66 to 70-72 is a bit cool to expect them to continue feeding, they could easily regurgitate with those cool temps. If you cooled it a bit more to 55 or so, you would definitely be cool enough for them to brumate without them using up their body reserves. As the temp stand right now, it is just cool enough to keep them from feeding, but not cool enough to keep their weight reserves from being depleted for the entire winter.
>>
>> Easterns and black Rats being from more cold areas of the country will often shut down indefinitely for the winter, many times regardless of temps because of the shortened natural photo-period.
>>
>> I would go ahead and brumate them myself, this will be better for the snakes and give you a break from worrying about feeding.
>>
>>
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Corn snakes and rat snakes..No one can have just one.
"Resistance is futile"
Jimmy Johnson
(Draybar)
Draybars Snakes

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I failed to mention that this is the room temps. I do have an electric heating pad of suitable size under each cage. I maintain this side at about 85 degrees and after feeding often bump it up to 90 degrees for about 3 days. All my other snakes including a black king snake have continued to feed. It's just the E. King,a female black rat and one of the corn snakes (male) that seem to be off feed but otherwise healthy. Thanks, Don

Ah, okay, but as mentioned before, some go off feed no matter how warm temps are because of the shortened days of the winter. If there is a window at all, they can sense this big-time!, and will act accordingly.

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com

Doug, Thanks much for your comments. There are windows in the building and I guess they just sense the shorter days as you said. Don

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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com