Are cooling periods really necessary? // Confused

[Slick Serpents]

I know this question is asked a lot but i am still confused. Ive heard so many different things from, you should cool down for 3 weeks 70-75F at night and 80-85 in daytime, to cooling down isn't necessary and doesn't really help as much as people think it does. These varying view points have extremely confused me.

So how long and at what temps to you cool down for? Do you introduce your snakes immediately or let it cool down for a while and then introduce snakes? Is there anyone who successfully changes nothing at all and simply introduces a male when they are healthy enough to breed?

Please let me know what you do and what works for you. Thanks everyone!

[Eric Alan]

The answers you're going to get aren't likely to clear things up for you any.

There are people that have good results with cooling periods (and swear by it) and people that have good results without cooling periods (and swear the people that do cool are crazy ). Last time a poll was done on this it was about 1/3 who used a cooling period and 2/3 who did not.

[John1982]

Like tossing frogs in a rain chamber - by cooling the keeper is trying to trigger a specific response. Animals in nature take their cues from many sources. Temperature just happens to be one of the stronger ones and easiest to mimic. Photoperiods are another good one and mimicking them is as easy as keeping your reptiles in a room with a window. Results will vary depending on all factors involved so it's best to just play around with it and see what works for you.

[grcforce327]

Just take the "common sense" approach and look at the year round temps where they occur in the wild.

[Pythonfriend]

i hear that different breeders do different things.

i think whats more important is the ultrasound, as in, is an ultrasound machine being used or not.

you just check each female for follicles each month, once follicles are detected you check that female more often and track the follicle growth. once the follicles hit the right size, you start pairing them up.

some breeders dont do cooldowns and just breed year-round, and others do the cooldown to get the females on some sort of scedule, so that many females start producing follicles and lay eggs all around the same time. but it doesnt seem to affect overall fertility, if it would, then breeders would be so highly motivated to switch to the better method that there would not be this split between successful breeders that do cooldowns and successful breeders that dont do it.

[Marrissa]

See JD Constriction posted about trying the no cool down method and said he slugged out hard this year. So I think it really just depends on what works for you and your area. A lot of times the ambient temp with naturally drop in the winter months. Makes sense to me. I think I'll be dropping the hotspot like he does for my first season.

http://jdconstriction.com/the-season-of-slugs/

[Eric Alan]

I think it really just depends on what works for you and your area.

This is the advice that I'm using. Learn who the successful breeders are near you and see what works best for them. What works in Orlando, FL may not be as effective in Phoenix, AZ for reasons beyond what you can try and control with a thermostat.

[Dave Green]

This is the advice that I'm using. Learn who the successful breeders are near you and see what works best for them. What works in Orlando, FL may not be as effective in Phoenix, AZ for reasons beyond what you can try and control with a thermostat.

Very good point