# Ball Pythons > BP Husbandry >  My Snake feels cold to the touch ?

## DarkSmoke

Hi , i didnt post for a long time. Dora my BP when i get her out of the vivarium is cold to the touch. now in my last thread i had posted people told me my tempretures are good and its time i stop worying. still im very worried after these weeks that my bp is cold when i get her out of the warm side. is this normal? 

she's digesting her meals good and growing up. no probs in shedding.

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## Aeries

As long as your temps are where they should be, you should be fine. Remember the hot side is 88-90 degrees, and your body is 97...so you're warmer than your ball python. Therefore your BP may feel cool to the touch in comparison to your hand.

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## Vilenica

Invest in a tempgun if you can. I use the little one from proexotics.  You may have a hot spot at 88 and your snake will be thermoregulating by staying halfway on it and feel cold to the touch (but infact be happy) in the low 80's

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## DarkSmoke

i have a tempgun, i forgot the the readings last i took , i will check again that could be the situation, as long as the princess is happy!

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## stevepoppers

Ok, your body temperature does not influence how hot or cool you sense something to be. Hot and cold are relative sensations. If you stick one hand in hot water, another in cold water, then both in room temperature water after a minute or so, it will feel hot to the hand that was in cold water, and cold to the hand that was in hot water. This shows that even if you account for your body temperature, you're still nowhere near accurate. Your hand is a few degrees cooler than your core body temperature anyway.

Simple answer is DON'T WORRY. The snake SHOULD feel cool to you. It is and that's right.

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DarkSmoke (05-21-2010)

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## Danounet

I keep the temp under the warm hide around 92. They feel "cool" to the touch, but not cold.

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DarkSmoke (05-21-2010)

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## DarkSmoke

Thanks guys, she doesnt feel cold to the touch only cool. so its ok then probably.

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## L.West

On this subject - does anyone know what temp reading we should get if we check the snake with a temp gun - just curious what their normal body temp should be.

Thanks.

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## DarkSmoke

> On this subject - does anyone know what temp reading we should get if we check the snake with a temp gun - just curious what their normal body temp should be.
> 
> Thanks.


nice question.

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## PassionsPythons

> On this subject - does anyone know what temp reading we should get if we check the snake with a temp gun - just curious what their normal body temp should be.
> 
> Thanks.


I think that would depend on where your snake was hanging out when you temped it.

Since snakes cannot retain heat, I would imagine your temp gun would jump around a whole lot depending on whether the snake was on the hot or cold side. But, with that being said, the number should be somewhere between 78-92 degrees I would imagine, because that's what the enclosure hot and cold temps should be. My cool side falls to 78-80 degrees, and my warms side is between 90-92. I'm sure it would depend on your temps and where your snake was when you temped it.

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## stevepoppers

I would think that they retain heat to a degree. They may only hang out on the cool side until they lose a few degrees of body heat, same for the warm side. I doubt they actually go all the way down to seventy something degrees or all the way up to ninety something. That's the whole idea of thermoREGULATION. To stay within a small range, not jump back and forth between extremes. I bet there is an optimum body temperature they're shooting for. That would be the temperature at which their metabolic enzymes work their very best. For humans, it just happens to be 98.6*F. Any higher and the enzymes start to fall apart. Any lower, and there's not enough energy for the reaction to take place, even with the enzyme.

All that said, you still have skin temperature versus core temperature, but because of the way snakes regulate their body temperature, that probably isn't an issue.

I have noticed my snakes feel warm like the heating pad sometimes, but as I said, my hand could just have been a little more cool than usual right before that.

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