Burmation

[TheCornPit]

Have any of you ever lost a snake while burmating?
Do you know what caused it?

 

[John E Dove]

I lost one last winter. I checked them weekly and noted noting wrong till she was dead about two weeks before she was due to come out. Cause of death unknown.

 

[Suncoast Herpetological]

Have any of you ever lost a snake while burmating?
Do you know what caused it?

Heather as your colony matures and ages, it is not all that uncommon. The method that most breeders (myself included) use to brumate is a gradual drop in temperature down to a specific target temp and then they maintain that temp for a fixed period. At the end of brumation you gradually raise the temp back to normal. This really does not mimic natural brumation in that in the wild, there are temp spikes all during the brumation season. Usually the reason for losing an animal is less than optimal body weight or simple age.

I currently brumate about 400 animals and I usually lose one or two of the old ones to brumation each season. I firmly believe that it constitutes a natural death that probably would have occurred in the wild as well from the stress of brumation.

 

[norsmis]

Heather as your colony matures and ages, it is not all that uncommon. The method that most breeders (myself included) use to brumate is a gradual drop in temperature down to a specific target temp and then they maintain that temp for a fixed period. At the end of brumation you gradually raise the temp back to normal. This really does not mimic natural brumation in that in the wild, there are temp spikes all during the brumation season. Usually the reason for losing an animal is less than optimal body weight or simple age.

I currently brumate about 400 animals and I usually lose one or two of the old ones to brumation each season. I firmly believe that it constitutes a natural death that probably would have occurred in the wild as well from the stress of brumation.

Great post John. I too have lost animals in brumation and chalk it up to age most of the time. I haven't (knock on wood) lost a young snake to brumation with the exception of a couple non-feeding hatchlings I brumated to see if this would trigger feeding.

 

[TheCornPit]

Thanks everyone and John as always thanks again for all the info I'm currently bring down temps and I'm curious what do you consider only age on a snake? I guess I should ask how old were the snakes that died during burmation? Do you also burmate your sub adults and yearlings?

 

[norsmis]

I guess I should ask how old were the snakes that died during burmation? Do you also burmate your sub adults and yearlings?

In my case, the snakes were 5 years or older but more in the 8 - 12 year old range.
As for brumating sub adults and yearlings, I usually dont unless they have been sporadic feeders and this is only to get them going and they usually have a much shorter brumation than the adults. I like to keep most of them up to put size on em.

 

[TheCornPit]

Thanks Ron, I've got an 10 year old going on 11 this year and was wondering how he would fair. I've also seen alot of people burmating younger snakes and I was curious how that worked out for them. Me personally I like to get them big so I dont burmate my little guys.