Wine Coolers as Hibernation Chambers

J

jason

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Ooops! I meant to post this here, I thought it may get more of a response...

Hey everyone, I've had this idea for a while now to use Wine Coolers as hibernation chambers for my salamanders. I don't trust mini fridges at all because my worms and other food died by freezing in them. When I think about putting my tigers in one of those, Im like "Hell no!"

Most wine coolers have manual or digital thermostats that range from 45-60 degrees. Why the hell would people want to freeze their wine? They don't! So I figure if you just pay attention to the temp, the salamanders won't freeze either. This seems to be a preferable range for hibernation, right?

I was talking to Mike_g on AIM and he found this site with lots of great smaller models.
http://www.beveragefactory.com/refrigerators/wine/compact.shtml

Check it out. What do you all think of this?
 
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! Thats funny. For a minute I was wondering you planned on converting a bottle for that particular usage!

Sharon
 
You know, now, new on the market are thermoelectric coolers that don't use freon gas and are environmentally friendly too. You can usually find them at the local sports store chain. Less than a hundred dollars. Some have digital temp control too. And they're pretty cool.
here's some examples.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3685154015&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT
http://www.eshop.msn.com/marketplace.aspx?catId=0&pmpType=1&pcId=2243&merchId=2825&invMerchModel=2041870
http://www.bizrate.com/buy/products__cat_id--12040100,keyword--Igloo%20Coolers.html
http://www.coleman.com/coleman/ColemanCom/detail.asp?product_id=5232F640T
http://www.allpowersupply.com/productslist.aspx?CategoryID=26&selection=10
or just google thermoelectric cooler.

I'd like to know how well they would work for hibernation. The only problem I see is oxygen
regulation.
 
There's no way I would ever use one of the coolers that has the heater built in too. I read on one of the coolers that reversing the power cord heats the cooler 100 degrees above ambient temp. Talk about an accident waiting to happen.
 
I think that wine fridges are fine but unless you want to try and breed your tiger you do not need to "hibernate" it (as they actually do not hibernate).

Ed
 
You can get a special thermostat for a regular refrigerator.. I've never tried it but I do have a small refrigerator hiding at the back of my shed I was going to try it on.
 
sorry for the hoosier comment Jason. I thought you
were joking about my thermocooler posts.
silly me,
Nic
 
Another advantage to using a wine cooler, besides the exacting temperature control is it has built in fans so temps are more consistent throughout instead of layering (i.e. 40 degrees F in the top levels and 35 degrees F on the bottom layers)I know of at least on European breeder who uses a wine cooler, and there's probably many more.
 
It would be nice to know if the fans aren't good because of creating drafts. I had read in one publication that drafts were not good for salamanders. My set up uses a thermoelectric cooler installed on the hood and it's creates a draft, but my laterale is growing, and I have seen environments in the wild where the waterfalls where torrent salamanders live
were crating tremendous wet, cold drafts, but they seemed to do okay there (they will die out of 55 degree range).
 
As long as the humidity is high enough that the flow of air won't dessicate the salamander or lower the ambient hunidity enough to cause stress than there shouldn't be any problems.

Ed
 
Every time I check on laterale's appearance the skin looks healthy an not dry or wrinkly so I think it is doing good. Plus the micro habitat where it stays is a small cave under a slate in damp soil mixture and it is growing fast and moves fast when disturbed (the lateral is the closest to the cooler in my divided set up).
Thanks again Ed.
 
Hey Ed, you said the tiger sals do not actually 'hibernate.' What do they do then? I was just wanting specifics.
 
Hi Jason,
They literally just slow down, requiring less food.

Ed
 
the do that here in the west when it gets too hot for them, i think the term is aestivate
 
Yeah, I notice over last winter my tigers didn't do much of anything all winter long but hide in one place in their terrarium. So when we put them in cooling units they 'aestivate' like suspended animation, sort of? So if you wanted to attempt to trigger some breeding response, would the animals need to aestivate twice a year, during the winter and during the summer?
 
Aestivation (estivation)= Dormancy that occurs in some animals (sirens are a salamander example that does this) during a period when conditions are hot and dry. Aestivation is analogous to hibernation in a cold enviroment and normally lasts the dry period or season
hibernation = A strategy for surviving the winter cold that is characteristic of some mammals. Metabolic rate is reduced to a minimum and the animal enters a deep sleep, surviving on food reserves stored in the body.
Tiger salamanders do not enter into either of these survival strategies. They typically retreat into underground burrows except during the breeding season. As these animals are under the ground the temperature typically stabilizes and remains constant. AS these salamanders have slow metabolisms under these conditions it is relatively easy to gain weight on a minimal amount of food (see the marble salamander sheet on caudata culture for some examples of how little food is required at low temperatures).

Tigers are not typically exposed to extreme cold until they leave thier burrows and migrate to the breeding sites. At least in A. maculatum, the cues which trigger migration are different than the cues that trigger ovulation and reproduction.
These cues have not been defined out in most of the ambystomids but many people have tried thermal manipulations which do seem to induce some but not all of the needed behaviors in other ambystomids.
Ed
 
Hi Nic,
Which part? They do not hibernate. The reproductive triggers have not been worked out in these species to my knowledge.

Ed
 
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