Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Here's something I was wondering: I keep my snakes at ambient temps throughout the year in west central FLA. They have been dormant with the cooler temps, but during a recent warm spell, they woke up and ate. So here's the question. If I pair up the snakes during their winter sleep and there's a warm spell for a couple weeks in, say, January and they end up breeding, but it gets cold again, does that change the egg-laying time line?

I kept snakes in Central Fla. and they bred pretty much normally. I keep pairs together, so they could breed whenever they wanted.
Also in other parts of the country, I kept pairs with a heat source and they often fed in the winter and still produced normally.
So now, you get to watch and see what happens. I would not worry about it.
Central Fla south is the easiest place to breed colubrids. All you have to do is feed them and clean cages. Which I imagine is why the big commercial breeders are there. Best wishes

What about montane kings and Mexicana there? Do you need a cellar or air conditioning?
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Hi Aaron, what there are we talking about, Fla or az?
First, montane kings are still kings and perform pretty much the same way.
All kings and most colubrids, metabolize in the same temp ranges. Whats different is, what temps they can survive or tolerate.
All kings are cool based snakes. Its just that some from northern areas and higher elevations can survive colder extremes.
Here in Az. montane snakes are montane, not for temp reasons, but for moisture reasons. Our mountains have 3 to 4 times the rainfall as the lower elevations. An example is, cal mountain kings are also montane, yet where oak woodlawns reach the ocean(sea level) there are zonatas at sea level. Same or rubber boas, which are normally higher up.
On a side note, I bred all the Mexicana without hibernating them.

I was asking about central Florida but what I really wanted to know was the background temps. Also I'm not sure what you mean by "not hibernating". I understand that hibernating traditionally means a long period of cooling but what about running a background temp of say 55F while maintaining a hotspot of 90F ? That would not be hibernation in the traditional sense but it would still be quite different from running a continuous background temp of 75F with a hotspot of 90F .

I imagine the 55F-90F would be quite successful because the snakes could get cool whenever they wanted. On the other hand I wouldn't rule out the 75F-90F method but it would certainly be news to me if montane kings could successfully reproduce without any access to cool temps whatsoever.
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Hi again, there are all manner of ways to approach this. Lets divide hibernation from non hibernation.
Simply put, hibernation is keeping snakes at temps below what allows feeding and digestion. Non hibernating therefore are temps that allow feeding and digestion.
Hmmmmmmmmmm in most cases, with these type colubrids, winter is a time of conserving energy gained in mid to late summer. That energy is utilized for reproduction in the spring, without the need to feed. These type species require temps that allow conservation of energy. Mid summer temps are normally so high that conserving energy is difficult. Late summer/fall temps allow for feeding and conserving energy.

So what we do in captivity is not based on a normal natural cycle for snakes in nature, we can do what we want. What the snakes need is simply the ability to feed then conserve that energy for reproduction.
The temps you mentioned are really nothing to do with hibernation in nature. Its common to see snakes out and moving from the high forties on. heck, I have found a number of boa and python species crossing the road in the mid fifties F.
I would think the low temps are fine as long as the hot temps are not to hot. I would not use 90F. Low eighties would be fine, then low temps from 55F to 65F for low temps would be good. Above 65F then lower the hot temps, see what I mean?
My kings here, feed and digest food just fine in the spring with the high temps only being 65f or so.
About hibernating. It does tell the snakes when to reproduce. Sometimes we hibernate them just to set their clock. After that we stop hibernating them and they reproduce at the same time as when they were hibernated. hope this makes sense.

Yes that does make sense. Thanks. About 10 years ago I bred Spotted and Children's Pythons with just a hot spot of 82 and background temps were just normal coastal California room temps of about 68-75 year round with occasional spikes into the high 80's in the summer. Like you have said in the past they bred about every 11 months. I just have never tried this with montane kings.
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