Reptile & Amphibian Forums

so i need to get my thayeri cooling now i have been putting it off (i dont know why), but i just dont have a good place to cool them, i have the closet in my reptile room and that is about it, other than that i got nothin, if i just put them in the closet and shut the door and checked on them once a week do you think that would be sufficent enough to get the cycle going? I know the male is good to go, but i dont know about the female, has anyone ever just put two together and have them produce? well any feed back would be greatly appreciated

adam

these are the two that i want to breed

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1.2 THAYERI
1.2 CORNS SNAKES (SNOW/STRIPEDSUNGLOW/WHITE TAIL CANDYCANE)

0.1 REDFOOT TORTOISE
0.1 PYXIE FROG

Have you checked the thread from today on the main kingsnake forum? Many folks believe that cooling is not really necessary for successful breeding. Others insist that it is. If you try to cool your snakes, I would make sure they haven't eaten anything for at least two weeks. If your closet isn't significantly cooler than your snakeroom, it might not be worth it.Its kind of late in the year to start cooling anyway.
People like me who live in very warm climates have a really hard time brumating snakes because the temps never get cool enough.Some of my thayeri go off food for a month or two,others eat through the winter.

Greg

Actually I did this the first time I bred thayeri and my results were bad....all duds X 8. The following years I've put them in sweater boxes and placed them on or near the slab in my garage....awesome reults!

Can you get access to a garge slab....maybe at a friends house? If not, I'd recommend you not breed them and use the year to grow them or buy a old firdge and make a hibernaculum??? out of it. There are designs on the web to show you how to do this.

Good luck,
Russ

sorry for the awful spelling......I've got fat finger syndrome tonight

I don't know if hibernation is truely nesessary but I do think that constant heat kills the males sperm, at least in montane colubrids. I cool in winter and I have a couple friends that cool in winter too. However I have had much better success than them in getting fertile greeri eggs. The main difference is where they live (desert) it gets hot in spring and stays hot, day and night. Where I live it gets semi hot in the day and cool (60's) at night.
Also last year I had a lone male mex mex and cooled him for the winter. Halfway through winter I got a female but she was underwieght. So I fed her up and then cooled her for only 4 weeks. I took her and the male out at the same time in spring and they produced 6 out of 6 fertile eggs. So I also think cooling may be more important for males than females.

Knowing that you live in Colorado, here's what I would do. It's really the male that need's to be cooled even more so than the female although both need it. If you have not fed them for a couple of weeks I would put them somewhere where where they can cool off to at least 60 degrees or less. Radio shack used to make a little digital thermometer that had a small 2-3 ft. cord with a probe at the end. On the floor of a closet may work well. Your looking for a place that will stay between 40- 60 degrees. I have mine in my sun room and I just keep the room cool with out heat. Even during the day when the temp in my sun room may get into the 70's my snake boxes stay below 60 degrees. Most of the time my snakes are between 45-55 degrees. You want to cover them and make sure they are in the dark also. Make sure they have plenty of water too. If you can keep them cool for the next 8-10 weeks, (which you should be able to, in Durango) you should be able to breed them after that. If you cannot do this its probably too late for this year. You should really brumate (hibernate) them from sometime mid to late Nov thru about the end Feb. Email me if you have more questions.

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Vichris

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