• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

Hibernation?

Plissken

Plissken

Crazy Snail Lady
I have a question for you experienced corn owners out there :)

I know that in the wild corn snakes will hibernate, and I also know that they should be hibernated for breeding...

I am thinking of buying my first corn soon, and I don't want to breed it. So I'm wondering, will my snake hibernate of his own accord? I don't much fancy the idea of sleeping the winter away.

If I leave the temperature in his viv the same all year round, will he hibernate?

Thanks! :)
 
Mine hasn't hibernated at all this winter. And he seems fine to me. But wait for more senior members to reply.
 
Your snake will not go into hibernation if everything is the same. You will probably notice it being less active and most go off their food for a while, hatchlings are much more likely to feed as it is their first winter and they need the energy for growth. It is actually quite worrying if a snake won't feed through its first winter and its growth will be slowed down considerably.

Of course you always get the exception e.g my corn has just been through his second winter has never refused a meal and is more active than ever. Some just like to confuse you
 
Plissken said:
I have a question for you experienced corn owners out there :)

I know that in the wild corn snakes will hibernate, and I also know that they should be hibernated for breeding...

I am thinking of buying my first corn soon, and I don't want to breed it. So I'm wondering, will my snake hibernate of his own accord? I don't much fancy the idea of sleeping the winter away.

If I leave the temperature in his viv the same all year round, will he hibernate?

Thanks! :)
Click to expand...

Hi Beck and Welcome to the forum!

I have found that snakes behavior is very individual. That is, some will act weird and some won't around brumination time (and breeding time..sheesh). However, they won't bruminate without you changing conditions for them. It is up to you to reduce feeding and change the temperature. That being said, there is lots of information here - check out the search function, it rocks for finding out what you need to know!

Another "must have" for every corn snake owner is Kathy and Bill Loves book Corn Snakes The Comprehensive Owner's Guide. It has a section on brumination.

Hope this helps and enjoy -

-Tonya
 
Thank you MaizeCrazy!

Thanks for your replies, everyone. Is it neccessary, or recommended that I change the snake's conditions, or will he be fine without hibernation (or brumination?)

I would like to leave the snake the same all year round; is this healthy for him?
 
MaizeCrazy said:
Another "must have" for every corn snake owner is Kathy and Bill Loves book Corn Snakes The Comprehensive Owner's Guide. It has a section on brumination.

Hope this helps and enjoy -

-Tonya
Click to expand...
This is a great book. It answers a ton of questions.
 
Leaving the conditions the same is fine. You can shorten light hours but apart from that you may risk accidentilly putting your snake into hibernation.
 
Thank you Shrimply.
I was planning to not provide my snake with any special lighting as I heard that's the right thing to do. I was just going to leave him to the natural light from the window and from the external lighting I have on in my room at night.
Just to check, that is suffiicent?

(Sorry for my silly questions!)
 
I like to light my vivs with energy savers or incandescents no higher than 25w but that is a personal preference and is not necessary. I just prefer the extra light. If you can get a colour temp of 680 (6500k) which is daylight it will really light up your viv nicely.

As for silly questions we all started somewhere and that is what this forum is for.
 
The term used for a snake's winter dormancy period is: brumation. The verb form is: brumate. :) This info will facilitate your search attempts.
 
Roy Munson said:
The term used for a snake's winter dormancy period is: brumation. The verb form is: brumate. :) This info will facilitate your search attempts.
Click to expand...

Ack!!! Dean, you are correct... silly me for not spell checking :bang:

I'm playing with temperatures in the snake room today, so am running back and forth.... it's a good excuse, right? hehehe

-Tonya
 
MaizeCrazy said:
Ack!!! Dean, you are correct... silly me for not spell checking :bang:

I'm playing with temperatures in the snake room today, so am running back and forth.... it's a good excuse, right? hehehe

-Tonya
Click to expand...

Spell check wouldn't have helped much. It flags 'brumation' as a misspelling. Its recommended replacement is 'cremation'. I strongly discourage using cremation as a method to induce breeding. :grin01:
 
I'm glad you don't think my questions are at all silly. :) Still, even if they are, I think it's better to ask anyway. I want to be exactly sure I know how to look after my snake.

Thank you for that info! I'll try some searches with those terms. Searching for snake hibernation doesn't come up with much, now I know why!

This forum is very helpful. I have learned a lot today already.
 
Well I'm glad Dean caught my mistake... sheesh, now I feel silly :p

Cremation??? Yikes!!

And, it's very cool that you are doing research before you "dive" in!

Cudos!

-Tonya
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top