brumation ???

[sattva]

Quick question! Am I right in my thinking that if I keep my temperatures at 78 to 90 degrees all winter long that none of my guys will go into brumation?

[Albert Clark]

Well, 78F can be considered a night time drop temperature for ball pythons so I would think that it could also apply to carpet pythons and retics. However if your daytime temps remain between 82F - 90F you are good. 78F will be the high point for cooling for those that even do use it to condition their animals. Real brumation is sustained cooling with temps down to 50F -55F for 2 to 3 months and is that low for colubrids and not pythons..

[sattva]

Originally Posted by Albert Clark

Well, 78F can be considered a night time drop temperature for ball pythons so I would think that it could also apply to carpet pythons and retics. However if your daytime temps remain between 82F - 90F you are good. 78F will be the high point for cooling for those that even do use it to condition their animals. Real brumation is sustained cooling with temps down to 50F -55F for 2 to 3 months and is that low for colubrids and not pythons..

All my guys have a cold hide that runs 78 to 80 and a hot hide 90 to 92... I have to say that all my snakes but my JCP like the cold hide, 99% of the time... The room temperature drops to 75 at night and climbs up to as much as 80 on a warm day...
I thought I had read somewhere that Boas will go without eating for months even if the temps don't drop... That got me thinking about my guys since fall showed up here this week... Maybe I read that wrong...

[Albert Clark]

You will be okay at those temps bc unless you pair the males and females during " conditioning/cooling you don't have to really worry. Night drops usually occur in the wild bUT pythons are certainly capable of breeding without being cooled. As far as eating is concerned I think it's more husbandry related and individual animals being triggered to go off feed. Just IMO.

[Andy_G]

The only snake you have that would truly "brumate" would be your asian rat snake, as almost all boids are just cycled or cooled except for the rubber boa. It's not necessary to cool or cycle anything, but even with constant temps and photoperiod they may know that the season is upon us. If they do stop eating, they have plenty of reserves to last them, but it doesn't always happen...even with colubrids. No sweat!

[sattva]

Well everybody ate last night so I guess they don't care that it is cold and raining outside... Thanks for the info guys!

[macandchz]

i think mac knows the seasons are changing . he's off his feed again. i checked my records and he did exactly the same thing last year at this time.