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Hibernation

calvin

New member
Hi!

This is my first year to breed the corn, do I have to cool down the male too? or only a female thank for your help Calvin
 
Actually, it's the male that usually requires the cool down more than the female in order to spur the breeding reaction. I know many people that keep their females on heat so as to feed them all winter and be ready for spring.
 
Hi Darin!

Thank you for your help, please correct me if I am misunderstood. Like you said I don't have to cool the female, just feed her until the spring and cool down the male and not to feed him right?
 
I also think it's the male that "requires" the hibernation in order to produce fertile sperm.

However I know many different breeders that don't put their corns in hibernation at all and still have good results, I believe this to be caused be the many generations of corns bred in captivity and they are therefor loosing their natural wayz, offcourse this is just my opinion :)
 
well

I really hope you have done some research because brumation without knowing your stuff can be a dangerous thing. If you know what you are doing and you have done research its fairly safe though.

You can't just cool down the snakes. For one, their gut MUST be clear. This means 2 weeks- 1 month under the same temp but without feeding. This clears anything out. Then slowly lowering the temp to 45-60 even 65 has worked for some, but the "warmer" it is the more chance you have of the snake losing weight as it hasn't slowed down enough. But anywhere in 45-60 is great.

And yes the male is more important to brumate although most corns do ine without brumation and lay fine clutches.

bmm
 
This whole brumation issue...

has me really on my toes.

I have kept snakes as pets and during rehab after injury off and on for over 30 years, but I have NEVER bred any. I live in Southern California. It can get quite cold at night (for us So-Cal folks, quite cold is like 40 LOL) but it is pretty common for it to get up into the 60's during the day, with plenty of winter days that can even reach the 80 degree mark. I have been trying to locate a place in my house where I can get low enough temps to brumate the snakes that will be ready to breed next year but I am not really comfortable with the idea. I know plenty of people in the area that brumate in their closets but it still scares me.

I am considering not brumating and seeing how it goes... how many people here do and how many don't...???:confused:
 
me

I have almost the opposite problem. Here in canada I don't have a place to keep them WARM enough during brumation. My closets stay to warm, but my garage and shed get well below 0 all winter long. *shrug*

so I am not brumating this year myself. Hoping for the best this spring!

bmm
 
Well I live in the basement... and the temp downstairs in the winter usually runs around 45-65 its cold down here! but that is perfect temp for my snakes that are brum! The hatchling-yearlings which I wont breed next year, will stay in my room where I keep the air vents open and the heat lamps going! the room will usually stay around 75-85 during the day when the lights are on...
Thats what Im going to try this year... if it doesnt work out Ill just have to find another way to brum... but just like BMM its way to cold to keep my snakes outside! and just to warm to keep in my room!
 
So, JR...
Are you going to be brumating that amel bloodred? If so, let's get together via email to see if we can try for a clutch to split!

;)
 
Mare, when I was living in So Cal I didn't brumate at all...and had great success. The first year I was up here I also didn't brumate and had good clutches, this year I did and everyone was breeding waaaaay late (last clutch popped out a little over 2 weeks ago). So it's back to not brumating for me. Thankfully I have males that are more than happy to jump on any female they see.
 
Thanks, Lady Chaos!

I have been thinking that I am not going to do it this year. They may choose to slow down, but I will keep the room warm and continue to feed. It's good to hear from someone who had success without brumating.

I have western hognose also and they are really tough to get to eat during the winter. I don't use artificial light so I will probably have to struggle through with them!

Last year they were all too young to breed so I wanted to keep them eating! This year, I have a few that are ready, so we'll so how it goes!

Cheers!
 
Last year, I did not brumate at all, yet my female produced eggs... she bred with a male I'd placed in her cage in order to clean his. Since I'd not brumated them and did not allow them to breed a second time, I wound up with 8 fertile eggs out of 15. Pretty good for a non-brumated 2-year-old virgin male corn, IMO.

It's not necessary to brumate your corns, albeit there is evidence to suggest that it does improve fertility rates. It would be interesting to see if one could breed a line of corns which don't require brumation at all to achieve high fertility rates. My guess is it wouldn't take a whole lot of work, just some selective pairings of proven breeders.
 
I like to brumate just for the break and saving some money on food! I would like to know if Rich or Don or Kathy brumate their females.
 
well i use heatmat/tape to a themostat ,after the clearing of there guts ,about 2wks
i start to lower the temp down,they all go in the cupboard under the stairs ,( there in rubermaid type boxes) which can drop at nite to -1,
but the corns never go below 50-55,and they say there for 10 weeks,checking on them every 4-6 days
 
just a thought ,
would it work say droppin the temp down to say 68/74 feeding only every 2- 3 weeks,and doing that for the cooling for 8 -10 wks then putting them together for breeding.
so less food and temp to induce breeding in stead of starving
:)
 
no

That would not be a good idea.

For one, keeping them temp at 68/74 and still feeding would cause the meal to be undigested as corns need a higher temp to get the digestion going. So you could have a snake that ends up not making it because of rotting food and no acsess to higher temps needed for digesting.

For two, the whole point of a full brumation is too not only get their breeding going but a healthy brumation where the snake does not lose weight. This means slowing down their metabolisim to a point where they do not lose weight when going off food during brumation. Lower temps actually help keep the weight on as the snake has sucsessfully slowed down. You brumate at higher temps and the snake might lose some weight because it hasn't fully "slowed" down.

You either do or you don't really. :)

bmm
 
hey bmm
its was just a thought ??
i'll just keep doing the way i have describe up above on the first post i wrote as it work for me for many years,:D :cool: :cool:
 
haha

Yes! I didn't mean it to sound rude.

Sorry! haha.

Anyways yeah stick with what works! thats what I would do.

bmm
 
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