Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This is how my garage is set up for brumation of colubrids. I have recently downsized to just alterna and annulata. The box is melamine without heat tape and the boxes are sterlite. I keep 3-4 inches of aspen and a nice sized bowl of water in each box which I change about once a month. The garage is kept above 50 degrees and I keep them cold for 3-4 months. I keep males and females I intend to breed together.

This is the conditions in there tonight

Thanks for the tips Coach,

I intended to cool my snakes next year. It may be somewhat difficult being in Florida, however. You have some killer phase snakes btw.

Those ARE some killer Alterna!
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Chris - TX

2.2 Splendida
1.1 Nigrita
1.1 Ruthveni
0.0.3 277 Alterna

It is strange reading how folks have to make sure that their snakes don't get too cold in the winter for a brumation.....

Here in south Texas we have to worry about the opposite. With temps hitting the 80s sometimes in the middle of Wingter it is a chore to keep brumating snakes cool enough.
I have a brumation chamber. It is 1/3 of my snake room and insulated well. I brumate about 75 montane and mexican king snakes in it. It has it's own window unit air conditioner.

I had to work with the sensor and thermostat on the a/c to get it to hold the correct temps. I plug in a zoo med heating pad and place the a/c sensor an inch above the pad and set the a/c to 65F. It holds the temps in the brumation room at a steady 54F to 56F. I had to mess with the distance the sensor was from the heat pad and the temperature to set the a/c at. It can be set at 60F but it will freeze up if it runs too long. Now it kicks on at 56F and shuts off at 54F. It runs about 5 minutes and is off for about 15 minutes.

I cooled all my snakes down to around 65F around the middle of October then at the beginning of November I dropped them to around 55F. They will not be warmed back up until late February for the males and early March for the females.......

Actually....If my digital thermometer read 62F like yours Coach I would think it was way too warm for them.........lol
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...
www.coastalbendcaptivebreeding.com

Hearing your situation in Texas makes me shutter. I really put little to no effort in once I get the animals set up. Once in a while I will turn on the space heater, no more then a couple of days at a time. Right now it is low 30's outside but the garage is 52. I'll check the water next month.