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Posted by Terry Parks on February 11, 2002 at 10:58:37:

In Reply to: Brumation Techniques...care to share? posted by TDMac on February 11, 2002 at 08:48:51:

Del Alspaw and I built a hibernaculum that we put in his garage. It's about 4'dp x 4' high x 10' long. It has two doors that open in front so you can open one side of the hibernaculum indepently of the other. It is insulated and has a digital thermal controller unit that can activate either a heating or cooling unit. The thermal controller readout unit is mounted outside the hibernaculum so you can set and read the temp without opening the hibernaculum. It has maintaned temps of 49 degrees - 52 degrees for the last two years. The snakes are put in their own sterilite container with a waterbowl and each container is stacked in the hibernaculum. We maintain as complete a darkness inside as we can. We don't check them very often. I usually just open the door slightly and check if anything smells funny. I feel that darkness is just as much a key element in the brumation cycle as temp and time. The snakes are put in Thanksgiving weekend. Del and I give them their last feeding 3 weeks prior to putting them down. Their last two feedings this past year were baby chicks. Baby chicks are great for putting weight on and the snakes seem to love them anyway. I've heard not to give them constant feedings of baby chicks because they have alot of cholesterol. We took the snakes out last Thurtsday. We generally gauge it to Superbowl weekend. They didn't have any or very little weight loss. I did leave my Japanese rat snakes in until the first week of March. I fed mine a small meal yesterday. I'll give them another feeding of rodents and then their third feeding will be baby chicks. Del and I will be building a larger hibernaculum for next year. Our collection is outgrowing the hibernaculum. Good luck TD

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: Del Alspaw and I built a hibernaculum that we put in his garage. It's about 4'dp x 4' high x 10' long. It has two doors that open in front so you can open one side of the hibernaculum indepently of the other. It is insulated and has a digital thermal controller unit that can activate either a heating or cooling unit. The thermal controller readout unit is mounted outside the hibernaculum so you can set and read the temp without opening the hibernaculum. It has maintaned temps of 49 degrees - 52 degrees for the last two years. The snakes are put in their own sterilite container with a waterbowl and each container is stacked in the hibernaculum. We maintain as complete a darkness inside as we can. We don't check them very often. I usually just open the door slightly and check if anything smells funny. I feel that darkness is just as much a key element in the brumation cycle as temp and time. The snakes are put in Thanksgiving weekend. Del and I give them their last feeding 3 weeks prior to putting them down. Their last two feedings this past year were baby chicks. Baby chicks are great for putting weight on and the snakes seem to love them anyway. I've heard not to give them constant feedings of baby chicks because they have alot of cholesterol. We took the snakes out last Thurtsday. We generally gauge it to Superbowl weekend. They didn't have any or very little weight loss. I did leave my Japanese rat snakes in until the first week of March. I fed mine a small meal yesterday. I'll give them another feeding of rodents and then their third feeding will be baby chicks. Del and I will be building a larger hibernaculum for next year. Our collection is outgrowing the hibernaculum. Good luck TD

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