Night Drops

Does anyone who is currently breeding drop their temps? This year I wanted to give it a try and use a variation of JKR and Marcus Jayne's night drop method. I dropped my temps 10/1 to 78 during the day and 75 at night while dropping the hotspot to 85 (my room sits at 80 year round with the hot spots at 90). What I want to know is when you drop your temps do some of your snakes go off food? Last night 10/3 was feeding night and it was a bad one by my standards. Only 50% of my collection ate which is not very good especially since I have a few females who are about 100g off of their target breeding weight. Im hoping it was just a weird week but it kind of worried me a bit. Anyone ever experience this?

Honestly, the exact opposite happens to me when I start dropping temps, but I'm not doing it till Nov. Once those winter temps start kicking in, they become ravenous. Did you make the changes gradually? Maybe that has something to do with it, as I change things by 1F per 1-2 days till it's at target winter temps over the course of 2 weeks or so. Are these all virgins? If they are then the time of years doesn't matter as much so long as you bring them back up just as early in the year.

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Originally Posted by nikkubus

Honestly, the exact opposite happens to me when I start dropping temps, but I'm not doing it till Nov. Once those winter temps start kicking in, they become ravenous. Did you make the changes gradually? Maybe that has something to do with it, as I change things by 1F per 1-2 days till it's at target winter temps over the course of 2 weeks or so. Are these all virgins? If they are then the time of years doesn't matter as much so long as you bring them back up just as early in the year.

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I have 3 who are virgins, 2 who have laid before but not for me, and 1 that laid for me last year. It didn’t seem to effect my hatchlings or my males (who are spotty eaters no matter the time of year) just the females. I didn’t gradually drop, that might be my issue. Judging by JKR and Marcus Jayne’s pictorials it doesn’t seem like they gradually drop either. I could be wrong but that’s how it seemed to me. Should I keep my temps the same now that they’re changed or should I go back up to normal temps and try to gradually lower them? I’d hate to put my 2 females who are so close to their breeding weights off food right before I start pairing. Could the fluctuations of temps have caused that?


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I know JKR does, not sure about Marcus, but that's probably the issue. Depends how long since you switched, if it was pretty recently, I'd flop them back about halfway between what they were and now. If it was more than a few days ago, you are probably better off just keeping them where they are and they will adjust. Did the ones that laid for you this year go really early?

The one who laid for me this year started pairing October 2020 and laid March 2021. She has no problem eating. It seems like it effected the virgins more than the ones who have laid in the past


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Gotcha, then yeah you can just be a little ahead of the cycle most people are on. Hopefully the ones that wouldn't eat do next time you offer.

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Originally Posted by nikkubus

Gotcha, then yeah you can just be a little ahead of the cycle most people are on. Hopefully the ones that wouldn't eat do next time you offer.

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I hope so, there was a thunderstorm out here in California where I’m at last night and I threw some in together. Got one lock this morning and hopefully I see a few more when I get home from work [emoji1374]


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