# cooling off period



## Gemmab85 (Aug 1, 2014)

Hi guys.

ive been reading a lot lately about the science behind breeding all sorts of different snakes and even my most basic readings have told me that the cooling off period is fairly important to stimulate ovulation. everything ive read says the cooling off starts december 1st and start increasing temperatures again around feb. what i was wondering, with temperatures in captivity all being artificially manipulated, is there any reason the cooling off couldnt be done in july, or any other month of the year? Do the snakes have an in-built sense of the seasons or do they purely go by their ambiant temperature? If you were a breeder with a rather large collection i would think it would be useful to be able to cool down at any time of year, to ensure you have a regular supply of eggs and, therefore, babies to sell.


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## Athravan (Dec 28, 2006)

It depends what species you're talking about to be honest. For example, a great deal of older caresheets and books will say you need to cool colubrids, when in fact it's been found that almost no colubrid species need it in captivity. 

You can artificially stimulate it at the wrong time of year but it's going to be difficult. I struggle to get temperatures low enough sometimes because my house is so well heated. In the summer, how are you going to get temperatures below ambient? You'd need an insulted room with air conditioning set to lower than the natural temperature, which would use a ton of electricity.

If you lived in a country where the temperature is always below the lowest ambient needed for cooling then yup, you could do it any part of the year and the snake wouldn't know - but certainly in the UK the ambient is higher than required for the majority of the spring, summer and even autumn usually.


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## Gemmab85 (Aug 1, 2014)

I did think how could you lower temps in summer, but often garages can be around the 15degree mark if they don't have large windows that let sun in.
I'm one of these people that, as I read through things, questions pop into my head, and this happened to be one of them. I know most colubrids don't need a cooling off but I know for pythons it's fairly important, isn't it? And they don't fully brumate, just cool off, which is why I thought of a nice cool garage in summer. 
Thanks for your reply though


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## paulh (Sep 19, 2007)

Photoperiod is important for colubrids from the southern part of the temperate zone, too. 

North temperate zone colubrid snakes have been taken to the southern hemisphere. The snakes adjust to the southern hemisphere summer/winter cycle. So I have no doubt that snakes could be cycled to produce eggs/babies any month of the year. It might take 2-3 years for the snakes to adjust to a major change in the cycle, though.


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## mitsi (Feb 1, 2012)

My boas brumate whether I cool them or not.


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## Scoffa (Nov 23, 2006)

Not only would it be difficult and expensive to lower temps in summer, but it would also cost more to provide the maintenance temps in winter.


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## nelly1 (Oct 27, 2009)

Athravan said:


> It depends what species you're talking about to be honest. For example, a great deal of older caresheets and books will say you need to cool colubrids, when in fact it's been found that almost no colubrid species need it in captivity.


Could you show some papers in relation to this?
I believe a species that normally brumates naturally, should be brumated breeding or not



mitsi said:


> My boas brumate whether I cool them or not.


Boa's do not brumate


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