Done getting "chilled out"?

[fl4ian]

After 3 weeks off food, I put Jeeves in a dark area of the basement where the temperature is normally between 53 and 55 F (around 12C). She has been there since the 15th of November. How long should she remain there at that temperature?

I have been changing water weekly, and she remains in a state like "the lights are on, but nobody's home", which from what I gather, is the way she should look/behave, etc. while in the colder temps.

I have no intent on breeding; I found this snake in my basement in October. She went off food naturally, and so that is why I put her downstairs to do the best version of brumation or semi-brumation that I could accomplish for her.

My question is how long should she remain down there? I've read everything from 60-100 days, but I'm looking for a more specific target as this is my first snake and I have no experience on which to draw. It has been approximately 45 days so far. The best mimic of nature would be my first choice, but I'm not sure how long that would be (and assuming that in real brumation, the temps would probably be lower).

Please weigh in on how many days she should remain at these temps.

Thank you for all the advice!

[guidofatherof5]

Since you are not planning on breeding I would think she's been there long enough.
How is her weight? Lost much size?
Mimicking nature is fine but she's probably been cool long enough.
Just my opinion.

[fl4ian]

I'm not sure how much she weighs, I never weighed her. She doesn't look much thinner, maybe a little thinner though.

I'll bring her up out of the basement.

Thanks for the advice, Steve.

[ConcinusMan]

45 days seems pretty short. Assuming there's no signs of weight loss or illness, I do minimum 60 days but normally 90-100 days at 45-50 degrees. If I'm not going to breed them, I skip the cool down altogether. 14 hours of daylight and warm temps is usually enough to keep them from insisting on brumating. Some people say that their snakes go off of food in the winter and so they have to brumate them but I think that's mainly the day length / light intensity causing that. Everytime that looks like it's happening, I just increase the day length/temps and they usually snap out of it. If you're brumating just to "reset" their appetite/ sense of seasons, 45 days is probably long enough.