Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just purchased 2 four year old Gray Band Kingsnakes. I am going to feed them generously for the next 2 weeks, let them digest at least 2 weeks, then start cooling them down. I plan on eventually moving them out to the garage for about 10 weeks. I was then planning on setting a thermostat on it's lowest level to protect against freezing but my BAH thermostat only goes down to 60f. Here in North Texas most of the winter will be no problem and these are native Texas snakes. But we will have several days in the 20's and maybe even the teens. I would like to be able to set them up in the garage and not have to rely on me to remember to warm them up on the coldest nights. Any thoughts?

This is the way I would do it, with the exception of putting them outside in the garage. I used to do it this way, but found I would lose 3 or four animals by the end of brumation. Last year, I simply left them in the snake room and was able to sustain temps around sixty degrees, sometimes lower. I lost no snakes and had a high rate of success in breeding in 2003. This includes two clutches of alterna, my first successful breeding of Mandarin rats,a clutch of Sinaloans,and several clutches of corns. This is purely by choice, and I am sure you would have success putting them outside, but from personal experience, I no longer move them out to the garage. Just giving you my 2 cents worth. Good luck.
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What temp do you keep your temp in your snake room and if it is lower how do you keep it that way? thanx for your answer, also what part of the country are you in?

I am in Houston Texas. When hibernating my snakes, I try and keep them no warmer than 60-62 degrees. I will not let it get lower than 50 degrees. I have a little space heater with a fan and this is how I keep it from dropping too cool. We never really have that problem in Houston though. Keeping the temperature cool enough is usually the problem.
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so how do you keep it cool enough? I don't have the option of just keeping one room cooler than the rest of the house.

I could turn on the A/C and close off all of the vents in the house with the exception of the snake room, but then it would be uncomfortable for us, so I either open up the windows and put a small fan for circulation in there, or I just let the cold weather do what it will do. Keeping it from getting too cold is easier than keeping it as cold as it sometimes needs to be. I just do the best I can. I personally do not feel that you have to "hibernate" a snake for 3 months at cold temperatures for them to breed successfully in the Spring. I had great success this past year and I did keep them in the snakeroom and I just tried to control the temps by monitoring it constantly. It worked just fine. I only cooled them for 2 months as well, and not at that cold of temps.
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so do you think even room temp would do it?

When you say room temp, I would do all I could to keep it colder than "room temp" in the sense of the word. If you were operating the central heating system I would close off the vent or vents in that particular room. Do all you can to keep the room cool enough for brumation, without letting it get too cold. I would try to keep it cooler than "room temperature", but I guess you could also ask, what is room temperature? Just try and keep it at 50-60 degrees and you should be fine.
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thanks i appreciate your time