Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm not clear on a couple things when cooling down pythons for breeding. (1) Do they still eat while being cooled? (2) Do you put them together during cool down or when you return the temp. to normal? Thanks for the information in advance.

I don't like the word "cooling" down when referring to cycling burms....cooling means not providing optimal heat/thermal gradients; and that leads to RI problems and eventual death if you are not careful. I bred burms for many years and never cycled them that much, just a slight night time drop but the burms were always allowed to stay warm if need be. The combination of a slighty temp cycling (night) and shortened photoperiod was all that was necessary to achieve success; very easy and w/out the worry of keeping them too cool.

Rob Carmichael

Bob Clark doesnt cool or change photoperiod he doesnt even put lights on most of his cages. He just throws a male in when ever the female goes off feed and he obviously has succsess with his burms. He does the same thing with alot of his snakes like retics and african rock pythons. MikeWwilbanks does to I believe and so does nephurus aka Jeff Byers.

With burmese specifically, a photoperiod reduction is not actually necessary, but a slight temp drop at night will greatly increase the chances of success. At temperate latitudes like in the USA, the outside seasonal temperature drops in the fall and winter will many times be noticeable to the snakes, even when you do not intentionally drop the interior room temps. This is why many breeders are successful without actually dropping the night-time temps in their facilities. This is especially true in the northern States.

Kelly