Second thoughts on brumation...

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

in my opinion... nope. The females need that time too... its what stimulates them to become receptive. they may without the brumation... but a lot of times... they dont. and without the brumation to time it all for them.. each female can go into season at a different time and you will be left guessing when. Your litter sizes will probably also be smaller... just because a freak thing happened once... does not mean that all your females will become receptive without that down time. That down time is good for them... they normally do the bulking before the winter... then they sleep.. and they wake up in the spring... mate... and produce BIG bouncing litters... so if that's the way that it happens in the wild... we should try and duplicate that so for optimal reproductive health on both the male's and female's parts. If a female is too thin to brumate... don't cool her... and don't breed her this year... wait a year.

A male can go after a female and breed with her, but if she hasn't been properly cooled and seasoned... and she is never actually receptive... there will be no babies! No eggs for the sperm to fetilize... no babies.

possibly that is why your checkered had such a small litter?

jsut some food for though

[Zephyr]

A male can go after a female and breed with her, but if she hasn't been properly cooled and seasoned... and she is never actually receptive... there will be no babies! No eggs for the sperm to fetilize... no babies.

possibly that is why your checkered had such a small litter?

jsut some food for though

As far as her litter size goes; she's incredibly small. She's a two year old measuring in at only a little over 22": For that body size I'd say she had a large litter.
Also, I do recall reading on numerous sites (and book references as well) that cooling isn't entirely necessary for reproduction.

The only thing negative I can think of about not cooling would be... Well, I guess the males would "rape" an unreceptive female, not too sure on how the psyche of that would effect her. lol

[ssssnakeluvr]

Also, I do recall reading on numerous sites (and book references as well) that cooling isn't entirely necessary for reproduction.

in nature, they all get cooled, whether its brumating under 2 feet of snow, or the cooler winter temps of southern florida (dropping to the 70's instead of 90's)for a couple months...they all cool. you have a better chance of having a litter if they have been cooled.