Do you cool your breeders?

[cinderbird]

Last year was my first year breeding.
I cooled them to 78 day / 76 night with no heat for one month.
I reduced feeding the males to every 7-10 days, and continued feeding the females every 5 days.

I got 14 fertile eggs and 1 slug(9.0 / 5.1) from the only .2 females that were really bred.

I did have one virgin female drop 12 ("scallops") unfertillized eggs two weeks into cooling.

One female was 1280g to start with, and went off feed during cooling. I placed a male in with her for 3 days to try and get her to rebound and start eating again, in order to prepare for breeding.
After 3 days with the male, and one lck, I pulled him out. I gave her 4 days of rest and offered food.
She did not eat again and was down to 1208g, so I decided to give her another year and not to breed her.

This season I have 35 females that are 1500g+ and ready to go, and 8 more that are 1250g+ and should be ready to go later in the season.
The 35 females and my males have been cooling at 78 degrees again since Mid Sept. and pairings will begin shortly.

78? that sounds extremely low, and while still feeding them? did you experience any problems related to this like RIs or regurges or severe weight loss?

[rjk890]

Like I said, one girl went off feed, and dropped some weight. She was a little light to start with so I just put the heat back to her, and did not breed her any longer.

I offered my males food every 10 days, unless they refused a meal. If they refused I offered them food again in 7 days.

The females were offered food every 5 days. If they refused, they were offered food again 5 days later.

I only cooled them at those temps for one month.
That is only like 3-6 meals.

No problems so far.

I gradually reduced the ambient temps in my snake room from 88 / 86 down to 82 / 80 over two weeks prior to pulling my breeders out, for cooling. The temps were then gradually brought back up to 88 / 86 in the snake room for the non breeders.

Then the breeders spent one month at 78 /76 before being returned to the snake room.

[jglass38]

I don't drop temps. In fact I don't EVER let my room temp get below 80 degrees. I am just not comfortable with it.

[MAballs]

I'm by no means an expert and just had my first attempt at breeding last season. I followed the instructions on 8ball's website at first but the realized that barometric pressure has more effect on breeding behavior than the temps themselves, my female laid 8 healthy eggs with a 100% hatch rate.
This year i have not lowered any temps but living in new england the ambient temps are naturally lower than in in the summer.
So the cool side is cooler than usual but the hot spots are the same as always. With that said i just placed my pastel male with my spider female and in about a day found them locked up (both were virgins) the one thing i know for a fact that helps them get going is to mist the cages and snakes with water when you place the male in with the female and then at least once a day for the time you keep them together. This and when it either rains or snows pretty much always gets them locking up or at least trying to.
Good luck to everyone this season.

[Clear]

I wont be dropping temps, and this is my first year breeding.

[FatBoy]

I do things a little different...my ambient room temp stays between 82-85. I have my tape on a timer that is set to cut it off at 2am and back on at 6am. Once I start breeding that will go from 12am to 6am. This is only for the females, males heat is not adjusted. This eliminates a hot spot for a few hours but temps still don't drop below the ambient temp.

[cinderbird]

I do things a little different...my ambient room temp stays between 82-85. I have my tape on a timer that is set to cut it off at 2am and back on at 6am. Once I start breeding that will go from 12am to 6am. This is only for the females, males heat is not adjusted. This eliminates a hot spot for a few hours but temps still don't drop below the ambient temp.

that is very interesting, would you giving us some numbers as to how successful thats been for you?