by croteseeker » Sun Jun 29, 2014 10:35 pm
Have you considered housing them in a mulch substrate during the colder months? A thick layer of mulch will create quite a bit of heat on it's own. To avoid respiratory issues, humidity could be controlled by allowing the surface to stay dry and watering the bottom layer of it with a tube or syringe setup. I've never used this method, as our heat is pretty reliable, but I work with mulch every day at work and even on the coldest days the stuff nearest the center of our piles can burn your hands. On a smaller scale (15-30cm deep) the heat would be much more manageable, probably pretty close to the kind of temps in which these species brumate.
With regard to species, the ones mentioned here are all a good place to start. I'd just like to add that garters emerge much earlier than most North American snake species and are often photographed in the snow. (I know this last part especially well, as I finally managed to take one such photo earlier this year.
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" a squat, scaly worm with, 'don't touch,' on one end and, 'that's why,' on the other."
-Thomas Palmer