Quote Originally Posted by Steveo View Post
Right, but it seems worth trying. Worst case, they don't breed and you lose a year.

The way I see it, someone could do three 4-month cycles per year: brumate for 2 months, 2 month gestation, birth. At birth, cool the next group. While group 2 is cooling, use those 2 months to get the first litters feeding, pick holdbacks, distribute the rest. repeat.
No. Worst case is you lose snakes in brumation.
I by no means am an expert on this subject but I feel brumation for breeding isn't something that can be cycled so easily. I feel most of the time snakes cycle on their clocks, not ours.
There must be physical changes that happen in a snake long before brumation. Simply putting them in a cold spot doesn't seem right if these other criteria haven't been met.
I am not trying to start an argument, here's my thought.
It's Summer and the snake is in Summer mode. Gathering food and trying to store fat, developing ovum(eggs). Now, they are placed in a cold environment for an extended period of time. Their body isn't ready for the brumation yet. Too many things about this are not in our control and in my opinion never will be. They ovulate at a certain time for a certain reason.
You might get by with it on the end of a normal brumation(holding a mate from a snake until late in the breeding season) but I don't think any other time is wise.
Just my opinion.