Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi guys, finally my year has come, i have 3 females all in the 17 to 20lb range and roughly all around 4 yrs old. Im waiting for all 3 to pass their last meal and then i want to start cooling. right now hot side is 92 and cool is around 84, and their on the heat so they are shooting 92-94. I was going to bring the hot to 80 which would set the cool side down to 72-74, no light and at 10p.m shut their heat totally off which will give them a night drop down to 70. I was thinking to do this for a week? Any thoughts on that scenario would be appreciated as well as my original question was do i put the males in with the females when i start this cooling cycle.
Thank you, and much respect and good luck to all you guys on here.
Jay

Hi Jay
A few questions for you.

Over how long of a period of time are you budgeting to allow the temps to drop?

How large are your males? And, do you plan to drop their temperatures at the same time, same rate, and to the same temperature?

jb
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What's written above is purely my opinion. In fact, MOST of what you read on the internet is someone's opinion. Don't take it too seriously

Jonathan Brady
DeviantConstrictors.com
Deviant Constrictors picturetrail

Jonathon,
My males are all of decent size, 3 rs, 7-10lbs, i was planning to drop females and males together, either in there own enclosures or paired together before dropping. That really is what i want to know, together or seperate during temp drops?? I was going to drop temps for about a week or two and then bring them back up to a constant 86, thoughts??

where do you live?

jb
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What's written above is purely my opinion. In fact, MOST of what you read on the internet is someone's opinion. Don't take it too seriously

Jonathan Brady
DeviantConstrictors.com
Deviant Constrictors picturetrail

Im in NJ

temps sound good for BCI, IMO - given where you live.

The purpose of dropping temperatures is to gradually reduce the female and males core body temperature in an effort to stimulate follicle growth and sperm development, respectively.

I drop my temperatures over the course of about 6 weeks so as not to shock my boas with a drastic temperature change. Due to the fact that females are generally larger than males, should you choose to keep them separate while cooling, you could start your females a week prior to your males because their larger body mass will hold heat longer. But that's not a necessity.

It's up to you if you want to cool separately or together. You could always place them together and judge for yourself. Afterall, so much of being successful breeding boas is observation and knowing your animals.

It's very likely that your boas are already experiencing some seasonality due to the fact that you live in NJ. Boas can tell when it's getting cool outside. They can tell when the barometric pressure is changing. Same with humidity, day/night cycles, etc. Because you're further north than I am (I'm in Florida), your day/night light cycles are far more dramatic when comparing summer to winter. So it's quite likely you won't need to cool as much as I do - which is why I think your temps you quoted are great. I cool further than that.

IMO, cycling boas is about introducing enough change so that something triggers your boas. I think a lot of factors are involved. Temperature, rainfall, humidity, barometric pressure, food availability (and possibly even the variety), light cycles, and more. In captivity, we only have control over a few of these. I feel like if we can't manipulate all of them to satisfy what they need to trigger breeding, then we can overcompensate on those we can control to still elicit the outcome we want.

It's kind of like completing a project in school. If you have 10 hours to dedicate to the project, you could divide those hours any way you see fit. Planning, research, building, writing, reading, etc... And each person will devote a certain amount of time to each of those factors, but each person can still earn an "A" because there's no "right" way to do it. But in the end, enough work has to be done to actually achieve the "A".

Just like breeding boas, one person may not cool, but they live up in NJ and therefore have a natural variance of 39% in the number of daylight minutes between summer and winter. And a 56% variance in average daytime highs between summer and winter. But here in Orlando, there's only a 26% variance in daylight minutes and a 22% variance in daytime highs between summer and winter. And again, the boas can feel that. So I likely need to manipulate temperatures inside their cage to achieve the same induction of breeding behavior and the physiologic changes that need to accompany it.

So as someone else stated, not every needs to manipulate temps to achieve breeding success because sometimes mother nature takes care of all of the cycling for you via other factors. But, history has shown that those who cycle temperatures properly tend to have a better success rate, on the average, than those who don't.

Good luck!
jb
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What's written above is purely my opinion. In fact, MOST of what you read on the internet is someone's opinion. Don't take it too seriously

Jonathan Brady
DeviantConstrictors.com
Deviant Constrictors picturetrail

so much of being successful breeding boas is observation and knowing your animals.
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Thank You. I try to tell people all the time, the "book" is a guideline, not an absolute. What works for Joe in Maine, may not work so well for George in California.

Some times you need to actually go by what your snakes tell you. And they WILL tell you if you observe them close enough.
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Sublime Boa Constrictor

Thanks JB, makes a lot of sense..as soon as the girls pass their last meals i will put males in and bring the temps down a bit. Hopefully the action starts right away.

Hey Jay! I'm pretty new to breeding, but I had a good litter this last season with 24 healthy babies and no slugs. Anyway, I've never cooled for breeding. I do live in Indiana so it gets colder outside and the house gets a little colder on its own. But I don't mess with the thermostat on the cages. I've even heard that some people even have successful breeding through the summer. It will be interesting to see other people's thoughts. Here's what's going on right now for me (and again I haven't cooled them at all):

Good luck with your breeding!!
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Rachel Squier
"The more we live by our intellect, the less we understand the meaning of life." -Leo Tolstoy

Rachel, looks good for you this season. What temps are your enclosures when you introduce the pair. Hot and cold side??? My girls seem to like it hot especially because their usually digesting bigger meals then my males. Right now my 3 fems are all sitting on the hot side shooting temps around 90, males are hanging on the cool around 84. What's your hot, ambient and cool temps in enclosure?? Thanks so much for your input

I have the thermostat set at 91 for the hot spot (which I do have the probe under the cage, actually on the heat pad). So, I think inside the cage where they actually are is about 86-88 for the hot spot. Cold side is pretty chilly at 71. Ambient seems to be about 74. I do think I will turn the hot spot up some if they become gravid.
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Rachel Squier
"The more we live by our intellect, the less we understand the meaning of life." -Leo Tolstoy

I don't cool either. Works just fine for me.

Cooling is not necessary for everyone. Granted, I know several people who just seem to have terrible luck if they don't cool, I know even more people who don't practice it, and have successful litters every time they try.

I keep a constant 91-93º hot spot depending on the animal and a 5º drop at night. Other then introducing the male, and the change in the light cycle from the window, they receive no stimulus from me.

FWIW
Rick
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Sublime Boa Constrictor

Thanks Rick,
As soon as they pass their last meals i will drop temps slightly and reduce lighting and maybe full night drop for 8 hours, hopefully this starts the fireworks.lol

I dont cool and my boas just breed. Havent had any issues yet. But my snake room does drop a few degrees.

I am curious to read the responses also. Standard issue is to not go below 70 degrees, but I have kept my boas in an unheated garage for 20+ years now with winter air temps dropping into the 50s most years. As long as the snakes have a heating pad to curl up on they do just fine. Seems that air temp is the more critical factor, not body temp. As for breeding, I have had females produce 6 and 8 years in a row. In northern California I have noticed that more less experienced keepers tend to produce litters when we have colder than usual winters. Typical lows here are in the 40s with zero to multiple below freezing events. Anecdotally suggests that more cooling may help with production.

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Rick Staub