(Kind of Unique) Brumating question...

[Will]

I've got a question regarding brumating my 2 adults breeeding Cals this year. I've discovered the our basement seems to be the perfect place to put any of my snakes that want to brumate. It is literally just a hole in the ground with a trap door in the kitchen, it has a dirt floor and holds the water heater/furnace(we live in a rural house). It's roughly 20' X 20' and for most of it, it has only about a 4' high roof, except the area where the furnace/heater are. I've been mointoring it over the last week and found that the temp stays at roughly 63 degrees F, and only varies between 62 and 65, so far. That could change during the winter, but as it's below the frost line and the water heater and furnace is down there, I don't think it will get a whole lot lower once winter really hits hard. I don't have any questions regarding brumating itself, but here is the problem:

The real question I have is that I know for a fact that most winters a bunch of garters come into the basement during the winter to brumate themselves(convienient for a snake lover, eh?) and I was wondering if it is a wise idea to put my breeders(or even my pet snakes) in the basement where there is a chance that the wild garters could bring in something with them(ie parasites, mites etc)...? I'm not so sure about internal parasites, since, they will not(hopefully) come in contact. I have large styro salmon boxes that I will put them in, and tape the lids shut with airholes poked in the top of them with water and bedding inside. I am planning on keeping the airholes small enough to keep the garters out, is that enough to prevent the mites...? Should I put them on top of something to keep the garters away or will they just climb that regardless if they see fit to...? I have not dealt with this before as I just let my snakes brumate at room temp(our old house had a finished basement and no garters AND got cool enough), so was just curious as to what others here thought.

[casacrow]

I would keep them out of there. Wild snakes carry all sorts of parasites that you would not want added to your collection.

[reverendsterlin]

I wouldn't with any animals in my collection

[ohh_kristina]

Personally, I wouldn't take the chance. An infestation can do bad things to a nice collection.

[Simon]

Other than infestation...what if...just what if a garter does get in contract with your kings? Aside from the king eating the garter and getting parasites from it....since it's in burmation thus temps are lower. This could cause the food item in your cal to rot. This would definately damage the internal organs of your snake. Thus leading to death.

So aside from mites, parasites, there is a chance for your snake to die because of eating the prey and having it rot in there. This is why we usually do not feed the snakes at least 2-3 weeks (just to make sure that they flush everything out) before putting them into burmation.

I wouldn't do it myself. Unless the basement is completely sealed and nothing can get in there.

You don't HAVE to burmate your kings in order to breed, they can breed without burmation.

[Will]

Unless the basement is completely sealed and nothing can get in there

I think it's impossible to completely seal any room, esspecially in a rural area where animals constantly come and go.

Unless the garters can break throught he boxes, they won't physically come into contact with each other. The only holes in the boxes are the size of a pencil. The only thing I am worried about happening is that there is the off-chance that mites may get through the airholes. Unless there is something else to be worried about, I'm not sure...

I thought maybe of putting the boxes in the space where the water heater is. The rest of the basement is really just a 3 foot deep dirt-floored-hole-in-the-ground. The heater area drops down to about 7 feet deep with a concrete floor. I don't see the garters down there, they hang out in the dirt areas, maybe they don't like jumping off a 4+ foot drop(there is no other way down) into an area where there is no way to get out.

Thanks for the advice.

[Tim_Cranwill]

You could put the box up on a shelf where the garters could not go....

[Will]

Damn, Why didn't I think of that...? I could fit a shelf down there to hold the boxes, and there is probably enough room in the heater area too. I was just thinking that I have some large buckets I could flip over and lay the boxes on top of those, but a shelf might be even better.


Good thinkin' Tim... ;)

[Katt]

Also your kings might carry something that would adversely affect the wild garters.

I wouldn't do it. We have a finished/full (cement walls, cement floor), but we won't put anything down there until it's completely done (totally sealed up, insulation, etc). Why take chances?

I'm not sure how a shelf would solve anything. Garters can climb.