Length of Brumation

[icestorm]

I know there is a debate over whether you have to brumate a corn snake in order to have a successful breeding or not. I do brumate my snakes. I don't want to get into that debate though. I am trying something new this year to see if it works. Let me know what you think, please!

I am going to brumate one bredding pair of a common morph, for a short period of time. I am thinking gradual cooling with a shortened period of actual sleep (brumate) of about 7 days and then a reverse of the process, meaning a gradual warming. From the time I start cooling and withholding light to the time I bring them back to temperature will be about 40 days or so. This doesn't include the 3 weeks of no feeding to make sure the gut is clean. So, here is my time line;

Three weeks= no food
Days 1-5= Reduced light
Days 6-10= Reduce temp to 70
Days 11-16= Complete Light Reduction
Days 17-23= Turn off heat and bring tanks to around 55-60 degrees
Days 24-29= Turn on small heater and bring temps back to 70.
Days 29-34= Bring back up light
Days 35-40= Bring Temps back to normal

Then feed and wait for first shed before I introduce both male and female together.


Will this work? Has anyone tried it? What do you think?

I'm actually bringing my snakes back up to temp now.

 

[Susan]

It's worth a try. I know we've had winters here in Florida where the wild snakes only had a few weeks of actual constant cold temps. I usually brumate, but didn't this year for several reasons, one being that I had trouble getting constant cold temps. And it would figure, this winter has been the coldest for the longest time in over a decade and would have been perfect for brumating... Oh well!