Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Could someone let me know the step-by-step guide to hibernating my female rat snake. I've had her for 2 years and was advised to hibernate her last year coz she stopped eating.

I'm unsure of how to go about hibernating her this year tho.

Thanx in advance.
Kat.

I haven't ever done it before, so hopefully someone wll chime in with some more advice but this is how I understand to do it.

1) Take the snake off feed for a couple weeks to make sure all food is fully digested. You don't want food rotting in your snakes stoumach. The length of time to wait I am unsure of.

2) take their heat source away, put them in an area that is going to fluccuate between 50-60 degrees or so, depending on the species. Keep water changed weekly, however don't handle your snake during this time period. some people say put the snake in a dark area, some expose them to regular light cycles. From what i've read, a place with minimal traffic would do - you dont want them to stay active thats the whole purpose.

then they should emerge hungry. thats what im hoping for on my neonate texas bairdi... he's in my closet right now.
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-Chris

The reason mainstream thought is thought of as a stream is because it's so shallow. -George Carlin

A fool doesn't learn. A smart man learns from his mistakes. A wise man learns from the mistakes of others. Which one are you?

My Website
Rat/Corn snake care sheet I wrote

Current snakes:
0.1 Licorice Stick Black Rat (Lola)
1.0 Black Rat (Frankie)
1.1 Texas Bairds (Jose and Rosa)
0.1 Blue Beauty (Brunhilde)
1.0 Green Tree Python (Claudius)... coming soon

Additions to what Chris wrote:

Activity temperatures for most North American rat snakes are in the 78-85 degrees Fahrenheit range. Keep the snake at activity temperature for two weeks after the last feeding to let the snake's gut clear of food. That works for me for corn snakes.

I like to stairstep the temperature down 10-15 degrees F at a time to harden the snakes to the cold. So, room temperature (65-70) for a week or two, and then a drop to 50-60. Snakes from the northern half of the USA can easily go down another step to 45 and IMHO would be better off not going above 55.

Keep your snake cold for 60 days after you hit target brumation temperature. Then raise the temperature to room temperature, hold there for a week, and then return to activity temperature. Start offering food a week after returning to activity temperature.

That is what I have done, and it has worked fine for me.

Paul Hollander