Keeping other snakes in same room warm as cooled snakes

[hungba]

So I have successfully gotten my breeding sized ball pythons to breed. The ambient temperature in the room is 77 or so.

Now, I notice that some of the other snakes aren't feeding nearly as well as before. And I do not see it as feasible to have a separate room for snakes that are not breeding and still being raised up. Do you people find a way to keep non breeding snakes warmer while still cooling the breeders in the same room, and with the same flexwatt arrangement?

I do not want to install extra flexwatt. I can turn the hot spot up for the non breeding snakes from the usual 89F I use to perhaps 91 - 93, which should effect the temperatures on the other end of the tubs as well?

[Redneck_Crow]

I don't know about anyone else's, but my snakes that aren't getting bred tend to go off food in the winter and they're not getting cooled. I don't cool anyone, not even the breeders, and all of the adults either go on a fast of varying duration or slow down on eating. 800 gms seems to be the magic # around this place--anything under 800 gms seems to keep eating as usual and over 800 gms their feeding slows down.

BTW, my non-cooled breeders are locking with gleeful abandon. Different people have different ways of keeping them and the snakes seem to thrive and breed in a variety of circumstances.

[hungba]

So are you saying that many of the snakes that are about to reach breeding size, but not quite there yet, will go off feed at this time of year, REGARDLESS of the temperatures?

That is to say, even if I were to heat the room back up to normal temperatures, they probably will still be slow on eating/be off feed anyway?

I noticed that the ones in the baby rack are eating just fine, and the ones in the adult racks aren't. I assumed this was because I use 4 inch flexwatt for everything, and the larger proportion of area heated for baby racks gets the ambient in the tubs up as well.

I am about to build new racks as my collection expands, and I was thinking about adding a second line of flexwatt for non breeders in large tubs, ONLY to be switched on in the winter. From your response, I gather this will probably be unecessary nor beneficial?

P.S. - By the way, the off feed snakes in question are NOT around 800 grams. They are about 1200 - 1300 grams which are just short of the 1500 which I set as the minimum to breed.

[joebad976]

So are you saying that many of the snakes that are about to reach breeding size, but not quite there yet, will go off feed at this time of year, REGARDLESS of the temperatures?

That is to say, even if I were to heat the room back up to normal temperatures, they probably will still be slow on eating/be off feed anyway?

I noticed that the ones in the baby rack are eating just fine, and the ones in the adult racks aren't. I assumed this was because I use 4 inch flexwatt for everything, and the larger proportion of area heated for baby racks gets the ambient in the tubs up as well.

I am about to build new racks as my collection expands, and I was thinking about adding a second line of flexwatt for non breeders in large tubs, ONLY to be switched on in the winter. From your response, I gather this will probably be unecessary nor beneficial?

P.S. - By the way, the off feed snakes in question are NOT around 800 grams. They are about 1200 - 1300 grams which are just short of the 1500 which I set as the minimum to breed.

Yup mine do the same thing. I cool my breeders and it seems once they get to a certain weight most go off feed whether they are being cooled or not. Babies are eating No problem.

[Redneck_Crow]

Sounds like the breeding season thing. In my house, 800 gms or over, which includes 1200-1300 gms, goes completely or partially off feed.

Our idea of breeding size is that--our idea. Ball pythons have a whole different concept of what is big enough to breed. They will breed at a far smaller size than most people realize, which is not an endorsement of breeding very small snakes. I don't breed any female under 1500 gms either because I want the female to have sufficient nourishment to produce eggs and keep her own body in good health. My smallest female breeder this year is a little over 1600. But just as some 10 year old girls are capable of becoming pregnant and reproducing, some ball python females will reproduce at an early age. My mojave female is just under 900 gms. I put her in a bin with a male just to see what she would do and pulled her out in a hurry because she was wiggling her tail in front of him and he was quite interested. She's a 2010 that is small because she was a mouser until I got her onto ASFs, so she is old enough to breed.

Snakes don't see things the way we do when it comes to "big enough" or "old enough." My guess is that your snakes that aren't eating are feeling their gender, to put it as politely as I can.