Doing research on hibernation of sonoran mountain kingsnakes in captivity.?

Your conundrum is well taken. most of these snakes die in captivity for 2 reasons=- heavy parasite load or improper hibernation. The wild caught ones will want to hibernate sometimes as early as mid fall, depending on how far north they come from. they do need a temperature around 50-55 degrees to accom plish this, and when I was doing my Masters Thesis on Lampropeltis at NYU, we put them in a laboratory refrigerator set at 50 degrees with all the other hibernating and brumating species. If you can get one of those little refrigerators that hold 2 six packs and find an electrician to adjust the temp so it doesn't get too low, that would work. If you get a snake from the southern part of the range or captive born the urge to hibernate may not take place. Otherwise you are stuck with having to make a cooling contraption.