Reptile & Amphibian Forums

About bonding and temperatures for the pros.... I set my adult kitts peak pyros up in their new communal home where I will continue to keep them together. They did not seem to have an initial shock what so ever and seem to stay near each other all the time (but no copulating). Is there any chance that they will un predictably breed and end up with an issue when time for brumation comes around???

Also, in this cage, where the female is sitting in the picture, their moist hide stays at about 70.1 degrees F. In the other spots around the cage they vary from 74-75 or 76. Do I need to make a warmer spot ??? It seems like both adults are cruising an even amount and spend time in different areas, female really enjoys the cold spot.
Thanks ahead of time for any advice.

I think it'd be very surprising if your snakes were to begin breeding this late, but animals do very surprising things sometimes. I've had friends tell me they've seen their pyros copulating IN brumation, so january, say, though I never saw that myself. My pyros were the first of my colubrids to breed.

I'd say you should experiment some more with temps and setup. I'd suspect it'd be useful to have a hotspot closer to 80, though others on the forum will no doubt have other opinions. Your observation that the female loves the cold spot could instead be that she loves the humid hide box, if i understood correctly where that's placed relative to temps. Maybe try it at a mid-temp spot, and then at the warmest spot, and see if she continues to favor it, or stays at the hide-less cold spot. Eliminate variables, in other words.

There's NO single right way to do this. Listen to what many people say. Embrace what makes sense to you. Then vary things, see what works best for you and your animals. Good luck!

Have to agree with Mr. Dunham completely here... think you'll find that female likes the moist hide box at temps closer to 80.

As far as the communal housing of kings... despite how it may seem it is nothing new, it's been done since the 70's and probably further back than that... no one here is pioneering new territory in bonding/communal housing. If they seem to "enjoy" each others company, aren't drastically different in size and are reasonably well feed you shouldn't have any issues in housing them together.

Keep us posted on how things work out for you. As I've said before it's an interesting subject and deserves a good deal more open minded consideration.

Gerry

Interesting!
I just today traded a bunch of mice for three 20 gallon long tanks so I can match up my 2010 pyros in trio and pairs. Currently they are all separate in 10 gallon tanks but will be brumated together in the trios and pairs this fall and put in their new tanks in the spring. I was tempted to put them in the new tanks now but I think waiting until they are ready to brumate will work out better. I don't expect them to breed next year, but it has become obvious they do need bigger quarters, as they have gotten pretty big for those little 10 gallon affairs.

All my pyros seem to favor temps in the low 70's. I give them a couple of choices on the moist sphagnum moss hides, one in the cool area and one over the UTH. They like the space between the UTH and the hide in the warm spot during the early spring when it is quite cool but as the season progresses into summer they like to be cooler. I turn off the heaters in the summer, as they don't even bother with them.

I will be most interested in how things go with your pyros. How old are they? How many do you have?
-----
Bob
Pyromaniac AKA Greatballzofire
Keeping cats allows man to cohabitate with tigers. Keeping reptiles allows man to cohabitate with dinosaurs.

We have eight pyros currently. One kitts peak pair, a prescott pair an applegate pair and a sentz hypo pair. All but the apple gatez are adults. I have always done it by the book so to say and only introduced them during the spring and never had issues but all this talk of bonding and different means of housing had me wanting to try new things.
interesting thing is that I own zonata as wellll and have not had half the issues with feeding as I have had with my pyros.all of my males skip feedings in spring bit pyros for longer. During the fall my female pyros get sketchy with feeding but all of my zs keep on going and on top of that seem to be ok with warmer temps. Just weird
because everyone told me zonata like it cooler.

because everyone told me zonata like it cooler.

they come from high elevation and colder climats. So of course "people" will tell you that. that does not mean they don't thermoregulate like all other kings.

Give them Choices. Always choices of temp range.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
www.Bluerosy.com