Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey everyone,

How's it going? Just a quick question to try to get some consensus. I have been "brumating" my hondos clockwork starting on December 1 and ending March 1. So, basically it is a full 3 month cycle. Could I bother some of you well-experienced breeders as to the start date and ending date of your successful brumation period for your honduran milksnakes for breeding purposes(please indicate what state you are in)?

thanks a lot,

Ray

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RAY

Up here in the great white north, my hondos go to the big sleep from Dec 1st. to Feb. 14th, 10 weeks as always worked great for me.
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Marc Bouchard
Selectively Bred Serpents
www.selectively-bred-serpents.ca

For me it's from Thanksgiving to Valentine's Day. I know a couple of hondo breeders who do not cool their snakes at all and have success in breeding them. It's quite possible that a light cycle is more important in triggering these snakes to breed than a cool-down period.

I still brumate mine though - 2006 will be my 14th consecutive year producing Hondurans (if it ain't broke, don't fix it).

Tim

Third Eye

tim,

are you being literal, do you know people who don't cool their hondos at all? they keep them around 80 and feed them thru the winter, and just start introducing them to each other in the spring? (I've talked to people who brumated at ambient temps in florida, with no artificial cooling, but they still withheld food--or as they put it, "the snakes stopped feeding"--and bred successfully, but that's different from not cooling at all).

terry

Hi Terry,

Yep. Doug Matuszak (The Boa Basement) does not cool his adults and feeds them throughout the winter. There is another breeder in Cleveland that does the same thing. Since it gets so cold here, it's probable that there's some temperature fluctuation, but since the snakes are eating throughout this time, I don't consider them to be in brumation.

Tim