Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well, here in Maryland many of my critters have started to shut down. My z's, with the exception of a few always hungry ones, have been shut down for a few weeks. I am going to feed tonight and then wait until Nov. 1st to shut everything down, with the exception of my juvenile rack. My ambient temps in my snake room are in the middle to upper 60's right now, but will be cooling off quite a bit more in the next two weeks. Just curious to how others that live in different zones are handling things and what the time lines are like.

Joe

Hey Joe - a few of my NA milks, mostly syspila, shut down in August on their own! I did my final feedings on October 1st for animals I plan to breed in the sping. Today I shut their heat source off so they will be at room temp (low 70s) for about a week then I will put them in the basement until end of January.

How's everything going up your way?

Dave

DNS Reptiles - Milk Snakes

Dave, I figured your temps won't be all that different from what I have here. Is that the montgomery male? Looks awesome buddy. All here is well. I am glad things are winding down though. I will still have some hatchlings to keep my interest---at least until they stop chowing too. I don't know how some guys deal with hundreds of babies. Better men than me!! LOL

Joe

Joe,

I've got a bit of a more staggered approach. I have Russian Ratsnakes and a Rubber Boa that went off feed last month, so they're currently on the floor in the basement closet.

I have several different sizes of snakes which eat several different sizes of foods, so sometimes it's a matter of running out of something like fuzzy rats and turning off the heat for those snakes.

There are a few snakes that I'm still growing up that will eat throught the winter as long as their heat tape in on. In general I like to shut things down completely by Thanksgiving, but there are times when I'd like to get more size on a snake, so I keep it up until Christmas.

I also have amphibians, water turtles and box turtles that I cool down as well, but I tend to wait until January for that.

Tim

Third Eye

Man Tim, you have quite a variety of animals!! Pretty cool if you ask me. I have some rubber boas too. Those things eat for a couple months and then BAM, nada. At least that is what mine do. Out of curiousity, what climate do Russian Rat snakes live in? I just think of cold when I think of Russia. Or supermodels. Then I want it to be cold

Joe,

Mmmmmmm supermodels. Actually it's Asiatic Russia, northeast China, and parts of Korea and Mongolia where they live - so it may not always be as cold as you might imagine. There's a cool TV series on Animal Planet called "Wild Russia" which covers the animals and wide variety of habitats in that region.

Russian rat snakes are often found in the areas around the Amur River, which separates Russia from China.

Below is a link to an article I wrote on Russian Rats for "Reptiles" magazine.

Tim

Article on Russian Rats

Tim, thanks for the information. That thing is cool looking. Looks like an eastern king and a black rat met up and had fun. Of course, we all know the T-Rex of the east would have eaten the black rat if the size was right

Tim, nice article. I just read it and saw that you also compared the look to an eastern!! LOL. As babies they look like a water snake. Cool change they make for sure. I would have to give the ugly duckling award to Deppei Deppei and Deppei Jani though. I might have to look into these rats down the road. Sounds like they make great display animals.

Joe

Sorry to bother you with this, but you mentioned the turtles: is there a special way to overwinter them? I have two stinkpots in central FLA, and was wondering what to do. I had them last winter but kept heat on them and fed them throughout.

Also, last year I let my pueblans overwinter. Is this advisable, or should I keep them warm all winter?

Thanks!

It's not necessary to cool stinkpots or Pueblans, but it probably helps if it is your intention to breed them. Most people cool their herps because they want them to breed. Since stinkpots are native to Florida, simply exposing them to natural light and temperature cycles is all they need (but they must be kept above freezing).

Tim

A stinkpot I found in Kentucky a few years back:

Third Eye

Cool! Thank you and great picture!

I'm in N. Florida. I plan on shutting them down December 1st. Some winters it hardly gets cold enough at all, some winters I actually run a heater in the unfinished room where I brumate.

My greyband, scarlet king, and black pines appear to have shut down already, tho.

I normally try to keep all babies up all winter, but this year I might just shut most of them down, too.

I usually wake them up around March 1st or earlier if it isn't cold enough.
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Amy Claiborne

Don't let them take your wasted time. J.T.

Very cool Amy. Was wondering what the Florida gang does and the timing difference.

The weather here in PA messes with me every year... For the past couple years it didn't stay cold until January, there were days where temps would be in the 70s. I hibernate all of my snakes in a closet in my attic, where (if it's cold outside) temps stay around 50-55. But if it's warm outside it messes everything up because then it could easily be 70 degrees in the closet... And I'd leave them outside the closet but the attic isn't insulated so the attic in general could get to as low as 19 degrees, which is the coldest I've ever seen.

I feel like for the most part I'm done feeding now, a lot of my young cali kings have gone off feed already, a couple mexican milks have refused their last couple meals. My garter snakes and a select few adult kings/milks are still accepting food but I'll probably stop feeding all breeders soon.
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Mike
KingPin Reptiles
www.kingpinreptiles.com

Thanks Mike. You are not far north of me so the temps are pretty close. Do you have supplement heat in the attic room in case it gets below freezing? I keep all my snakes in a room in my basement and they stay in their cages for brumation. I just shut the heat down and open the small window they have. The water heater is in the same room and puts off enough heat to keep the temps in the upper 40's at the lowest, but most of the time the temps stay right around 50.

Joe

Hey Joe,
There's no heat at all in my attic, I've been using the closet in the attic for years, it could be freezing in the attic itself but inside the closet will still always be above 45. I do pad the inside up with some blankets for some sort of insulation and I assume this helps. *knock on wood* I've yet to lose a snake to the cold during hibernation. My biggest concern is escapes because for hibernation the snakes come out of their escape proof snake rack containers and end up in rubbermaid containers that I have had snakes escape from before in the past..
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Mike
KingPin Reptiles
www.kingpinreptiles.com

I hope all keeps going well with the attic as well Mike!! As far as the escapes from the rubbermaids---I have used them before and made liberal use of those big metal paper clip things and they could not get out.

Joe

Sounds like a smart idea, I'm gonna have to remember to get some of those with the rubbermaids next time I'm at wal mart. The only good thing about a possible hibernation escape is the door doesn't leave any openings so they couldn't end up roaming free in the attic.

Good luck with your snakes Joe, best of luck for next year too.

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Mike
KingPin Reptiles
www.kingpinreptiles.com

I am in Washington State, and my gray-bands have shut down, so I have turned their heat off. My snake room is an un-heated spare bedroom, and with the window open a couple of inches the night time temps are getting to the low 60s.

I have turned off the heat for about half of my gray-band hatchlings. Some have not taken their first meal, and I don't want them to burn up their reserves. The hatchlings that are eating I will continue to provide heat for.

My male rubber boa stopped eating for the year in mid-June, while the female ate sporadically through most of August. I have them on the floor and they only had supplemental heat for the spring and early summer.

My corns are still eating so I will probably wait until at least Thanksgiving until I cut back on their feeding prior to turning off their heat.

Last winter was my first to have a dedicated snake room, and the winter temps stayed mostly in the upper 50s to low 60s. Everything did just fine.

Here are a few of mine. Sorry no milks currently.

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Kent

1.1 Hypo (het lavender, striped) corn snakes, 2010
1.2 Gray-banded king snakes, blairs phase, 2008
0.0.17 Gray-banded king snakes, 2011
1.1 Oregon rubber boas, w/c 2000 and something

Colossians 3:17

Nice snakes Kent. Is that rubber gravid in that pic? She sure looks like it!! I have liked listening to how other folks handle things. Thanks for contributing to the thread.

Joe

Joe, not she was not gravid. I have had this wild-caught pair of rubbers since June 2010. While the male is probably nearly full grown, the female is not finished growing. I am hoping they will produce offspring next year.
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Kent

1.1 Hypo (het lavender, striped) corn snakes, 2010
1.2 Gray-banded king snakes, blairs phase, 2008
0.0.17 Gray-banded king snakes, 2011
1.1 Oregon rubber boas, w/c 2000 and something

Colossians 3:17

Wow. I guess when she was feeding she was FEEDING huh!

Joe

"To keep a secret spot secret, the only other person you should tell is yourself"

Yes thats true! She went from 94g on 2/1/11 to 129g on 8/24/11. The male went from 46g to 68g by 7/1/11, but then dropped a little weight since he stopped feeding. It was hard to keep them as cool as I would have liked during August and September.

Just checked the temp on the floor and its 55 this morning! That's more like it!
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Kent

1.1 Hypo (het lavender, striped) corn snakes, 2010
1.2 Gray-banded king snakes, blairs phase, 2008
0.0.17 Gray-banded king snakes, 2011
1.1 Oregon rubber boas, w/c 2000 and something

Colossians 3:17

for my kings and corns...

i feed very heavy through Sep, I cut back feeding and available light the first half of Oct, stop feeding and turn off the heat leaving the snakes in a 72 degree room the 2nd half of Oct, I move the snakes down to my basement which gets anywhere from low 50s to mid 60s on Nov 1st.

Usually mid Jan i'll start warming them up and start feeding early Feb.

works great for cals, deserts, corns, and great plains rats.

i started this method because of 2 wc desert kings i had... thats when they would naturally go off feed and come back on so i just added in the cooling variable.

Interesting. You seem to start feeding a little sooner then most, but that is when I started this year. Wonder if starting early can effect their feeding cycles? I think next year I am going to hold off until late Feb. to start offering food. I have one zonata that stopped feeding in late May. Crazy as it sounds, she did the same exact thing last year and stopped feeding on the same exact day. Good to keep records! Anyway, if her weight still looks good I will even hold off on her and maybe she will feed longer next year.

Joe

Im glad someone else posted this, I was going to do the same...
Last year I lived in Michigan I brumated in Oct Nov. Things are much different in Houston... We had record temps 3 digits for like five weeks straight. I am actually running some heat at night right now. Its like 80s during the day and 50s at night. Low temp of 46 tonight then high of 77 tommorow.

Crazy. I will have to see how it goes Im guessing Dec. All my snakes are eating like pigs!
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Seriously...I keep my milks up and feeding throughout the winter...just reduce their light cycle (automatic timer for the lights) and the belly heat stays on.

They don't eat as much, but they still grow. I don't get a break, so that kinda sucks, but I can breed sooner and have larger females.

My lone Arizona Mt. has been off feed for about 7 weeks...I don't give him any heat ever and he doesn't start eating until Feb or so.

One day soon I plan on trying to breed Arizona's without a "classic" brumation period(no light and cold temps) and see if I can get good eggs. I don't know if it's ever been done successfully or not.

-Rusty

Ah, something very different. Rusty, pretty neat you go without a brumation cycle. I for one will be very interested to see if you have success with some of the montane species without a cycle. Keep us posted.

Joe

Unless I find a lone female AZ Mt. King in the next few weeks...I won't get to test that theory until 2013.

But I'll let you know when I do.

-Rusty

Do you provide cooler temps for the males?

Brumation will be very tricky for me. Its almost better that I don't attempt it due to major temp fluctuations here. My snakes are in a poorly insulated room, common area... Temps in the winter average 60 H 40 L but are likely to have some warm fronts pushing the 70's at times.

I may get my snake room down to 50's at night but then could be back up to 70's a couple days later! Not sure I want to take the RI risks.

Any specific temps you use, thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

My plan is to try and maintain 60-65 Night 65-75 Day...
I have never done it this way so I don't know what to expect. Last year I lived in Michigan. They don't all have a heating device so I am worried about feeding them when the temps are down.

I have Getula Hondurensis, Thayeri
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Joe! I'm a little late to the party, but what the hell... Here's my system:

I'm in south-central Montana. During the active season, my animals are kept on racks in a daylight basement with belly heat. The thermal gradient in their enclosures ranges from approximately 88F on the warm end to 70F on the cool end. Many of my animals, mostly the northern clime critters, naturally go off feed in the late summer or early fall. This is probably a biological clock thing and also influenced by the change in length of daylight. These animals are removed from their heat sources after several weeks of fasting and allowed to sit at ambient room temperature (hovers in the low 70's). Any that look like they're losing weight go immediately into a refridgeration unit at approximately 45F. The others sit at room temp. for several more weeks, until the crawl space where they spend the winter reaches a cool enough temperature that I don't feel I have to keep an eye on them all the time (generally below 60F). The temperature in this crawl space hovers around 50F for most of the winter, which seems to work well for the temperate animals.

My tropical critters stay up and feeding until November (or so). Then they're removed from the heat and placed in a darker location at room temp. (again, 70F) or slightly below. I've had some bad experiences cooling the tropical critters much below 60F, so I don't allow them to get that cold these days. Mid to low 60's seems about right, especially in conjunction with a reduced photo period.

The results of this routine are favorable, too! One of this year's hatchlings:
Pale Milksnake (L. t. multistrata) - Thomas Co., NE

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-Cole

Cole, I knew I could count on you for a complete run down!! You seem to have a great and proven system going there. You have a good advantage for montane species by living in a cooler climate. I have used, and will use this year, a regular refrigerator in my basement kitchen ( pretty much my basement apartment )for some of my animals as well. If I turn the temp as low as it will go the temps stay around 45 or so. They did run down to 43 last year at one point, but I had no ill effects from this. I just open the door every three or four days for fresh air. I just have to remember to warn company that the beer is in the upstairs fridge!!