Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i am new to breeding snakes and i have a few questions that i need to be answered. first both my male and female cage temps are at about 64 to 65 degrees is this low enough for them to hybernate,or do i need to go lower. second if this is not low enough, how can i get them to go lower.also should i keep feeding them and how much. thanks a bunch in advance and i might have soom pics of them soon here the male is a 66%het for albino and my female is normal so i have my fingers crossed thatnks again stephen

I think you'll need to get them down to about 55* or lower for a successful brumation period.

Also you want to stop feeding them two or three weeks prior to putting them into brumation, so as you can give them time to clear their intestinal tract.

Always keep water in their enclosure though and make sure they are drinking it.

Good Luck!
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0.0.1 Argentine Black and White Tegu
0.0.1 Baby Aru Green Tree Python
2.1 Bearded Dragon
0.0.4 Hatchling Bearded Dragons
1.1 Honduran Milksnake
1.0 Florida Brooksi Kingsnake
1.0 Blood Red Cornsnake
1.0 Jungle Carpet Python
0.1 Desert Kingsnake
1.0 Western Hognose Snake
1.0 Bull Mastiff

I always get my hognose temps down lower, 50 degrees. Some years, the temps have dropped down even lower for a week at a time, 40 degrees. I keep them in my garage and cool for about 75 days. Hognose are a desert species and the desert gets butt cold during the winter. If your garage or basement does not get that cold, try placing rubbermaid or sterilite boxes in a large aquarium standing on end. I use a 60 gallon tank and can stack 7 boxes in it. The glass absorbs the cold and holds it. I then wrap a sheet or bubble pack around it after a few days. It acts like a refrigerator and maintains that temp which is a few degrees cooler than the rest of the garage.

If you are asking about feeding, I suspect that you may not have given them time to empty their system. If I am correct, warm them for a day or two and then give them a warm water bath so they drain their system of any undigested food. Undigested food can rot in the stomach of a snake during cooling and kill them. This is well documented in books that cover breeding.
If you did confirm that they emptied their system prior to cooling, just give them water during the cooling period.

Hope this helps, if you need more info, just ask.
John Q

ok thanks for the info

The aforementioned info on brumation prep is sound advise. I was just wondering what you had your fingers crossed for when you mentioned your male being 66% poss het./albino.

i'm hope for a loooooong shot of maybe a baby albino

I was wondering if you were looking in that direction. Unfortunately you do not have a chance at any albinos with either of the parents being normal. The albino gene is recessive and must be paired to manifest itself. If you had 1.1 66% poss hets then there would be an outside chance to produce albinos. The best way to bred any possible het is to breed it to an albino or a proven het. Then if any albinos pop up you know that the possible het is now 100% het. Good luck