2nd 2014 O. p. coxi clutch update thread.

Some new freshly shed pictures of #5, male.







And #4, female.











And then T2, the tiny male twin, who isn't so tiny anymore!

Amanda, I'm curious whether you brumate your coxi. I've heard differing opinions on whether it's necessary for Oreocryptophis. I'm considering cooling my pulcher and vaillanti down for next year.

I have not brumated them so far. Probably won't this winter but might next. Last year I wasn't sure my one female was going to be big enough to breed, so I didn't want to brumate her and slow her up, though I have heard of people feeding their Oreocryptophis at brumation temps. I paired her with the male after her first shed in February and they locked up immediately, was figuring if they bred without it, good, if not, it wouldn't hurt anything for her to go another year without.

This year I was wanting to get my other female up to size, although she is now more than big enough to breed, so I probably could brumate all three adults this year ...

At the house we used to live in, there was a great room in it to use for brumating, was very easy to keep it around 50/55 degrees. Unfortunately the house we bought two years ago doesn't have any place that works nearly as well. I'm still struggling to get it below 60 degrees.
In most cases (not all) I don't see the point in brumating snakes under a year old though, so I almost never do it with hatchlings.

So I guess in answer to your question, I don't really know. It doesn't appear completely necessary for a decent breeding season but it might help give you better results.

Thanks! I may try it with the pulcher since things didn't work out so well with them this year. The male seemed very interested in breeding but the female wasn't always so receptive. I thought I observed a hook up one time but I may have been seeing what I wanted to see.
I actually bought a huge wine cooler back when I was breeding on a larger scale. It's about as big as two full size refrigerators. It's pretty difficult to get brumation temps in Florida. Our winter lasts about a week

AxS9914-6. Female, the one that didn't want to eat but has now had three meals and seems to be getting an appetite now.













AxS9814-T1, the slightly bigger female twin.













Continued ...

AxS9814-T2, the little male twin. He's hard to get good pictures of!

Could you tell me what the adult weight is for this species?

The adult females are around 300-350 grams and the male is smaller, around 250 grams.