Losses in Brumation.

[Sid]

Like James, it would be very interesting if we could pin point reasons for losses.

I always burmate mine in the crawl space under my house. So temps, ect. always very much like in nature. I have never lost a snake during burmation (knock on wood).

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

I checked my humidity guage down there tonight... humidity in the basement is 90%. The garters are all doing well...

[Stefan-A]

Dehydration is supposed to be a major killer during brumation in the wild and garters in the wild (and apparently in captivity, too) are known to submerge themselves in water during brumation. And apparently, it increases their survival rate drastically if they're able to do it. I think I have an article on it somewhere and I'm positive it's mentioned in The Garter Snakes: Evolution and Ecology.

I'm not convinced that high humidity would be a bad thing, quite the opposite.

[Loren]

I am willing to bet that parasites may play a role in the deaths of some of our snakes during brumation. If the wrong snake catches the wrong thing, he could live without any ill effects because his body is able to keep things in check...and he does alright with it until brumation comes along and slows him down, it gives the bugs the edge and while most parasites do not aim to kill their host, when their host is vulnerable, inactive... etc, sometimes they can over-do it and kill them anyways.

I absolutely agree with this theory-I've been thinking the same thing the past few weeks- and also with the thought that more needs to be learned about proper humidity in brumation. I am willing to bet these are the main 2 issues. Since garters are often fed items other than the standard f/t rodents, it is very feasable that they could harbor parasites. I have definitely had more health issues with non-rodent eating snakes in my collection, in general.

As Stefan was hitting on, I think possibly a mid-brumation soak or 2 might be worthwhile.

I've never been one for vet bills, especially not on a dead snake- but it may be worthwhile to have a professional examination done on a couple of these casualties(by a good herp vet), as soon as possible after death, to help determine the cause.

[Stefan-A]

I wouldn't force the snake to "take a bath" mid-brumation, but in my very humble opinion, they should be given a large enough bowl just in case they feel like it. A simple soak is probably not going to do much good, anyway.

It might look like I suggested that submerging would prevent dehydration (which it might perhaps do, but that's beside the point) but I was thinking of two different things when I wrote it. The first was that dehydration is a problem, the second was that snakes in the wild can IIRC cut their energy consumption significantly by submerging themselves.

[Loren]

Agreed, although I have witnessed snakes drinking heavily when put into water, even when they had a bowl.
Stefan not disagreeing at all, but rather, out of curiosity, how does soaking lower energy consumption?

[Stefan-A]

how does soaking lower energy consumption?

Not a clue.

I could say "By lowering its metabolism", but that's not really an answer. Although it is apparently correct.

[Zephyr]

Another good question... Why do garters soak in brumation? Aside from the hydration aspect, especially if their environment is already humid enough.

[Stefan-A]

Does anybody happen to have this one lying around?




It was referred to in the following article:


An excerpt from that article:

[Zephyr]

Well... Assuming that garters in captivity are the only ones with access to "bowls of water" how would species brumating away from water sources soak?
I think the main problem is that we don't have any good data from inside an actual garter den.