Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This year will be my first year of hibernation and I was wondering if I could use a fridge as a place to hibernate them so I could have the safest way of monitoring constant temps.
Please help with my dacision
Thanx
Chris
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I don't recommend it at all. First off they will have poor air quality from the fridge being closed all the time. I suggest just placing them in the coolest part of your house besides the fridge!

A lot of people. especially in places like Florida where it never really gets cold enough to effectively brumate snakes, use modified refrigerators very successfully. You have to make sure that you have adequate ventilation (outside air flow) in the refrigerator, which makes it less efficient as a refrigerator, but it does work well. Since you are only cooling to 50-55 degrees F., instead of the usual 38 degree F. that a refrigerator normally cools to, it's not a big problem. Once you have everything set up and adjusted, it should be pretty accurate. Of course, your power bill is going to go up....

Would drilling several holes in the sides of the fridge provide the proper air flow?

I think most people cut a hole in the side of the refrigerator, and install a small fan to pull air through at low volumes, then brumate the snakes in individual plastic shoeboxes, sweaterboxes, etc. However, I suppose the fan is not completely necessary as long as there is adequate ventilation.

Are there other options in warm climates other than a fridge? Is there anythink made specifically for brumating snakes?

I don't know about recommending this fridge thing to solidly. I think unless you were really certain of what you were doing you could end up with snakecycles.

I keep my garage (which I have sealed off)on the cool side so in winter even here in South Florida I can maintain a temp in the mid to low fifties if I chose. Since the AC is off in the rest of the house that time of year I can affordably brumate there without the risk of accidentaly freezing or suffacating my animals.
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

Where I live, it can get to freezing one day and be 70 the next. I dont really trust garaging because of temp flux. Id like to be able to control it. Not only that, I may be moving to an apartment soon, resulting in no garage to use.

I have been looking at some of the smaller wine chiller available on the market today. I believe they get down into the lower 60s, but you would still have the circulation problems. Small wine chillers are cheap, larger ones get expensive quickly.
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Chris Harrison