Communal Brumation?

[MasSalvaje]

Does anyone brumate their garters in groups? I decided to try it this year to see how it works. I just watched a special on snake dens and had the epiphany to try it in captivity. Has anyone tried it or know of any research that has been done on the matter?

-Thomas

[ssssnakeluvr]

well...depends on the snakes.... I put breeding groups together.... my normal wnaderings are all in one cage. I generally have specific groups together.... ones that I want to specifically breed together.

[Stefan-A]

This year, yes. Two wanderings and a SanFran share an enclosure this winter. Not a big group, but it's still more than one. I just reorganized them, brought one out, separated the SanFran and paired off the remaining wandering garters.

[MasSalvaje]

Since I don't have any that I am going to be breeding (apart from the female I talked about with you Don) I broke them up into size groups. I have my 3 larger females in together and then all of the young juvies in together (5 of them). I kept the first winter ones out so I can keep an eye on them and get them a little size. I did mix species but they are all the same size and I did not put in my larger vagrans.

-Thomas

[guidofatherof5]

I've got my high-red, albino and 1 normal radix(females)together. They normally live together so I'm brumating them together.
This weekend a number of T.s.parietalis will go in together. Last Winter I only did them in pairs. This year I'm trying larger groups.

[drache]

last year I had them brumate in breeding groups, but since I bring out the males a little ahead of the females anyway, I've got them set up in gender groups this year - a large girls' tank and a smaller boys' tank

[Eddie]

Hello
I separate mine in breeding pairs and some I group together by size and gender. The most I have together is 4 males. I also don't mix sub-species together.
Ed

[ConcinusMan]

I've always brumated all my snakes together regardless of species. Rubber boas, sirtalis (concinnus), and ordinoides together. Of course these were snakes that den together in the wild anyway, and won't dine on each other. But I always separated them into breeding pairs or by species before slowly warming them up in the spring. The thing about rubber boas though, is that they are most active in the dark/twighlight with a temperature in the low to mid 50's. In order to truly brumate those, they had to be kept colder than I would keep my garters. Still, I did keep them together during more than one winter at 45-55 degrees. They didn't seem to mind and I found no problems with doing so.

[drache]

rubber boas need colder than 45º to brumate?
actually, my parietalis are still active at that temp
with garters it roughly relates to their native distribution

I brumate mine in batches, but they're always either in species groups or gender groups - just like when they're not brumating - and I do give them slightly different temps and times depending on sub-species

[ConcinusMan]

Well not exactly. I guess what I should have said is that it takes colder temperatures for rubber boas to become inactive. In fact, I couldn't get them to eat or come out and be active unless the temps were lower than 60 and dark or nearly dark. Right around 55 is when they were most active and would take pinkies. Kind of makes rubber boas a pain to keep in captivity and believe me they are a pain. Good think they have very slow metabolisms. Getting them to eat is a challenge.

But back to garters, I think just about any garters that brumate in the winter can be kept together at 45-55 or 40-50 and they should be just fine.

[Ctah_Lu]

its nescesary the burmation period? and.
its nescesary that the temp. be that cold?

[drache]

no, it's not necessary at all - or at least not for most garters
some garters will stop eating at that time of the year, and when that happens, it helps to cool them for a while for two reasons: a) to slow their metabolism, so they don't loose too much weight, and b) it tends to "reset" their appetite

[ConcinusMan]

Not necessary to brumate. In fact, it can be stressful so only healthy established snakes that you plan to breed should be brumated. If your snake is wild-caught and a few years old, it will have a biorhythm going (internal clock) telling it that it's time to brumate and it may stop eating for a time.

Sometimes I skipped brumating well-established adults which I didn't plan to breed but I did lower the temperature somewhat so that it was in the 60's during the day in addition to shortening the day length. They'll need less food during that time.