I still haven’t seen Norman and it’s still pretty cool/cold here so I’m assuming he’s in brumation completely. Is it recommended to just leave them alone now? I normally like rearrange his furniture to give him more enrichment once a month and like spot clean/do a 30% change of substrate so it’s all fresh but I don’t wanna disturb him if he’s in brumation?
I haven’t seen him drink any water or anything but I’ve been keeping it filled just in case he wants some. How long does brumation last?? Iirc it’s like January or February? I’m a little worried because his weight when we stopped seeing him was still pretty low (like 21g) but he’d refused eating for a month and had eaten a meal right before he stopped coming up to bask.
I don’t think he’s escaped and there’s not like an odor to suggest he’s passed (do snakes smell when they are deceased ??) so is this all normal behavior? Should I dig him up??
What is the temperature in his enclosure? If he is brumating then he should be left alone completely, mine go into a cool dark cupboard and I only open it once a week to check on them and change water. Disturbing him too much will disrupt his sleep, and he won’t benefit from the enrichment when he’s sleeping. People typically brumate for 2-3 months. If you’re concerned about his weight you can weigh him a month in and if he’s lost a lot of weight you can slowly start to warm him up again, but as long as he’s cold enough he shouldn’t lose more than a few grams. Did you wait 2 weeks after his last meal before you started cooling?
I didn’t do any of it on purpose. His tank was kept the exact same everyday with basking being 88°f and cooler side being around 75° which are a bit low but my ambient room tempature has dropped because of it being colder where I live so my room rn is about 70° and during the night it’s around 70° too (I don’t use under tank heating) so I think he might’ve just gone into it on his own. Rn his temps are about 88-90° on the warm side and around 74° cool side.
Pretty much he ate one meal, and about a week later he’d buried himself pretty deep and I haven’t seen him since. But his cage has been locked and there’s no way for him to escape other than that.
All of his behaviour sounds normal for a brumating snake. Keep an eye on his weight, if he loses a lot then you might have to let him properly brumate to stay healthy. My boy always went a long time without eating and came out of winter skinny so I had to brumate him
It does dip down at night and I had like a week where I forgot to turn my heater on and it got to like 65° (which is my bad) so could that have been it??
When you said temp guages did you mean the analog kind? They aren’t accurate, so if you’re using those then the temps may be lower than you think. Dig him out and use the laser thermometer to get his body temperature. The temps in my cupboard spiked to 60f yesterday and everyone surfaced briefly to explore and have a drink, a short drop to 65 shouldn’t be enough to have this kind of effect.
From what I understand, most breeders do a drop to around 65f or so for 2 weeks before dripping down to 55-60 for a couple months.so unless you have consistent had temps 65 or lower, he shouldn’t be brumating.
I have the gauges with probes. I think I will dig him out just to be safe and see what’s going on because I didn’t think that he should be brumating when he has his heat on as high as it is.
I’ve only had consistent temps of like 70 or under like outside but my house is heated and it shouldn’t be quite so cold inside so idk what’s happening
Is it possible that because he has like 4-5 inches of substrate that the temps have dropped there? And so he’s buried and just chilling?
I think what has happened is that because his substrate is so deep that it is much cooler (like 65-68°) than the surface temps I’ve been reading. I think what I will do is dig him out, make sure he’s not lost any weight and maybe take some of his substrate out (it’s like 4-5 inches deep) so maybe I’ll take out some of his substrate to help maintain higher temps
I wouldn’t take out any substrate but I would check on him as soon as you can. weigh him and then continue to do weakly checks and check his weight every other week.
Update: I did find him !! He weighs 19g which is up from October. He looks pretty good like he did before he went into hiding. I am gonna attempt to feed him just to see if he’ll eat and then he’s gonna go back in his tank
Making another update for any of those who want one!
I think I got him out of brumation? He’s been a lot more active like he usually is and has started to poke around more in his tank (I rearranged the furniture after having to dig him up). So looks like it was just a fault of me not having my heat on at night and it being cold in my room
I think the fact that you don’t use under tank heating is causing a problem. Your substrate is way too deep. Since your hognose burrows, he is burrowing down too far from the overhead heat you are using, thus putting him in brumate mode.
Either remove a couple of inches of substrate or switch to an under tank heater so when he burrows down deep he will stay warm.
Is your overhead heating on all night? Snakes should have access to heat 24/7……
I removed some substrate so it is a bit lower but he’s been way more active again. And from everything I’ve read they shouldn’t get below 70° and my room stays a solid 74-76 so I haven’t kept his heat on at night. It’s not caused an issue before now (which I’m assuming is because it’s colder) but if it’s truly a thing where he should be kept higher at night then I might switch to using CHE or smth of the like.
I’m not a fan of UTH bc it’s not like realistic+I’ve heard so many horror stories and idk if it would work with my terrarium having an acrylic bottom but if I have to I will type thing yknow
