Hi, everybody. I have 1.1 Nicaraguan BCI that are about 2.5 feet in length. I got them as babies in July of '02. For their first winter I kept them in shoeboxes and fed them regularly. Heat was not a problem. They grew. I then put them in 15 quart Sterlite boxes in my rack. They were feeding regularly until the temps dropped here in SoCal and the heat tape couldn't keep up. So I put them in 10-gallon aquaria with Ultratherm heat mats under one half of the cage and 75-watt heat bulbs over the other half. I use coconut fiber substrate, which they seem to love. The Ultratherm side stays in the 70s Fahrenheit on the surface, and the hotspot side stays in the mid-80s. I regulate the heat with a rheostat. The female pretty much stays in her hide at the hotspot end, while the male roams and parks for awhile then roams and parks again. Problem: they're still not feeding. Is this normal because of the season, or do I need to jack up the temps? Maybe they'll fast through the winter and make up for it in the spring. I don't know. All my other animals are colubrids, which are in brumation at this time. Any advice will be welcomed. Thanks.

Greg Moss
Diamond Bar, CA