Snakes that can handle cold weather

[Clive b]

Hi

Just a quick question.

Which exotic non venomous snakes can handle colder tempretures better than your average snake ?

Thanks.

[Viper_SA]

You could always try the Russian Rat snake....

[RaD]

I had to google that. thought you might be taking the piss

[rolandslf]

Your Corn Snakes and King snakes are fairly fine with cold weather, I do not keep Corns and Kings on any heat at all.
Yes, I live in Durban, but even here we get two, three, four days in a row with overnight winter temps down at 10 and 11 degrees Celsius.
Besides, King Snakes are brumated for two months and sometimes more in fridges with temps set at around 8, 9, 10 degrees Celsius.

I think most Exotic Colubrids don't suffer too much with colder than normal temperatures.

[Bushviper]

All your Northern European species will handle extended sustained cold temperatures as will certain Canadian as well as Russian and some Chinese species. These animals can take a gentle decrease in temperatures and then a gradual increase of temperatures. This does not mean they will do well in the south of Joburg where the day temps can reach 22 and the nights down to minus 4 degrees. That will kill them.

[Clive b]

Hi all

Thanks for the replies.
I am traveling alot for work and last thing I want is while I'm away Eskom decides to hit my area with load shedding and my snakes ( still to get ) go without heat in winter for a few days and die or get sick. So just thought I would check what if any snakes could handle the cold a bit better.

Russian rat snakes and some North American Kings were my first options.

Thanks again.

[Jamster]

Not just kings but milks as well. Load shedding usually only takes place for a couple of hours a day so it should not matter too much.

[Clive b]

Jamster

Load shedding only for a couple of hours so it won't matter ?
Since you live in the northern suburbs or Jhb I guess you know what happens in our area, and of course Eskom always keeps to their schedules. Last year we had load shedding in our area , for one day we did not have electricity for 7 hours. Tempretures dropped to 6 degrees in my house and in my cages and this was mid morning. Now if this had to happen a few weeks ago at night or early morning tempretures would have dropped to 0 degrees, would that not matter ?

[Jamster]

Okay, well then you're screwed:) Good luck.

No, I do not stay in the "northern suburbs" or JHB, as you can plainly see to the right hand side of my post. Fortunately Eskom tends to keep to their schedules in Port Elizabeth. Do you live in Port Elizabeth?

[Clive b]

As usual Jamster posts one if his well thought out comments. Pls keep these posts reptile related

Thanks !

[Jamster]

I don't mean any disrespect Clive. I simply gave a sarcastic answer to a sarcastic proposition.

Honestly, here in PE Eskom tends to be pretty good with keeping to their load shedding schedules. I had no idea that they stuff up that badly in JHB. I may have assumed that your load shedding situation is the same as it is here, and I apologise for making careless assumptions without first knowing all of the facts.

Back to topic. This is could be an expensive solution but you could perhaps get a small generator that could switch on after the power has been off for a certain period.

[croteseeker]

Have you considered housing them in a mulch substrate during the colder months? A thick layer of mulch will create quite a bit of heat on it's own. To avoid respiratory issues, humidity could be controlled by allowing the surface to stay dry and watering the bottom layer of it with a tube or syringe setup. I've never used this method, as our heat is pretty reliable, but I work with mulch every day at work and even on the coldest days the stuff nearest the center of our piles can burn your hands. On a smaller scale (15-30cm deep) the heat would be much more manageable, probably pretty close to the kind of temps in which these species brumate.

With regard to species, the ones mentioned here are all a good place to start. I'd just like to add that garters emerge much earlier than most North American snake species and are often photographed in the snow. (I know this last part especially well, as I finally managed to take one such photo earlier this year. )

[Jamster]

Croteseeker, is that heat you are refering to due to decomposition? Like when you put hand in a bag of day old grass cuttings?

[croteseeker]

Croteseeker, is that heat you are refering to due to decomposition? Like when you put hand in a bag of day old grass cuttings?

I'm pretty sure you've got it right, Jamster. (BTW, that's another good example that you provided.)

[Foxticity]

I stay in Jhb and the load shedding is a big problem.
Last year I lost out on plenty of eggs as the power goes off for 6-8 hours or more. We have had 2 days without power which was cr@p or they turn the power off during the night so you don't even know its happening...

My friend that lives about 10km from me (Alberton) had a entire week of the grid. A transformer had to be replaced which caused them a week without power.
JHB is really bad and the schedule is useless.

Back to the problem. Do you house your snakes in racks or cages.
Thick substrate in rack work great or place a tile on your heating pad in ur cages.

If you only have a few snakes, maybe look at a UPS. Matrix has a special on a 2000W UPs for around 2K.
Lets say you run 10 heating pads of 20w each.
The UPS will give you 2000w of power for 45min so you will be sorted for 10 hours if you only run 200w.

This was the info given to me at Matrix.
All my incubators this year will be connected to a UPS and my reptile room will have carpets to prevent massive temp drops.

Hope it helps...