# Question about temps during brumation for snakes



## Krissssss (Sep 30, 2007)

I'm going to be cooling my Russian Ratsnakes down in a month or so and want to do it properly tho I am a little confused about something. I keep mine at 25 degrees in the warm end and 21 in the cool end as their species is not the type to like excessive heat. I read that the ideal temperature for brumation for these guys is about 10 degrees. Thing is, I've read a lot on other species that says to cool them down at a certain temps for brumation. What I don't understand is do they mean the overall tank temperature should be 10 degrees (using my example) or 10 degrees in the warm end. If it's the overall temperature would I need to switch my mat off completely? as I don't think it goes down that low. Both Tatyana and Boris are perfectly healthy and a good weight so I've no concerns about actually putting them through the winter cooling, but I don't want fluctuating temps!

Any ideas from any experienced breeders out there?


----------



## paulh (Sep 19, 2007)

I just put the whole tank in a cool area that is approximately the desired temperature. The whole tank is the same temperature.

When I first tried to figure out what temperature to brumate snakes at, I discovered that the deep ground temperature is the average year-round surface temperature. So I got an almanac with monthly average temperatures for various cities. I picked a city right in the middle of the species range and averaged the monthly temperatures for that city to approximate the average year-round temperature. The snakes would hibernate at the deep ground temperature or a few degrees colder. 10 C is a good approximation for most snakes found in the USA. But Russian rats might be better off a few degrees cooler.

By the way, you can't drop the temperature to hibernating temperatures overnight. They go through a hardening process in the wild as the temperatures cool off. The snakes have to have an empty gut, too.


----------



## DraigGochHerp (Jun 15, 2005)

For all things Ratsnake check out the Foundation The Ratsnake Foundation - Russian Ratsnake - Ratsnake Species > Asian Ratsnakes > Elaphe - Articles and if there anything you can't find let us know. Good advice by Paul on how to find the temperatures for a region by month/season. Just remember, underground, where they brumate, there's no severe cold or frost so the temperature is always a few degrees above the average air temperature.
Graham.


----------



## nigelsleftboot (Jul 18, 2008)

Do snakes need light while hibernating? For example could you brumate them in a loft space with no windows?


----------



## calsmum22 (Sep 30, 2008)

hi i have just been given my two corn snakes by a friend of a friend that wasn't looking after them properly anyway do they need to hybernate and how and when (if they do)
thanks


----------



## cooljules (May 20, 2008)

calsmum22 said:


> hi i have just been given my two corn snakes by a friend of a friend that wasn't looking after them properly anyway do they need to hybernate and how and when (if they do)
> thanks


snakes dont hibernate...

you dont have to cool snakes at all, i do it for breeding, the others i dont


----------



## calsmum22 (Sep 30, 2008)

thanks so much, now i know :notworthy:


----------

