Too hot?

[elbee]

Hi friends, I have a quick question about how to deal with high temps. The ambient temp in my snake room is about 80-81 degrees. It isa Texas and it is 105 degrees outside so there isn't much I can do except run my air like I am doing. My king and milk have began to wrap their water bowls and my hognose is under her water bowl. What can I do to keep them from being too hot? Hot spot is at just below or at 90 and on a thermostat and they are in an AP rack system.

[Aes_Sidhe]

Those Are Colubrids... and American Colubrids.. they really dont need 90 degrees on hot spot... I'll lover hot spot to 85 and maybe even will turn off heats for a night at all....

[AtlasStrike]

I keep my snake room ambient at about 79-80, my corn never touches the heat (set at 85) except for immediately following a meal and even then not for more than 24 hours. Before I got my BP, the ambient was never over 73, and my corn spent about half the time on the warm side. Corns and Kings like a 10 degree gradient (75-85), but if your temps are holding steady at 80, I would turn off any supplemental heat and just watch them carefully when its time to feed. You might want to set the thermostat for 85 on feed day to give them the option, but give them a big water bowl so they can cool down if need be.

[elbee]

My thermostat is at 90 or so becausae I also have a ball python in my rack. The colubrids normally chill on the warm side after feeding but move back to cool side. So, I guess my question is: since the room will not get below 80 and that is the low side temp, are they too warm? Obviously they are better off that the poor wild snakes that are 95 degrees or higher at night, but do I need to add a granite slab or somethin until ambient temps get back down? Thank you so much for your help.

[llovelace]

Why are you keeping colubrids in the same rack as BP's? Unless you are running belly heat.

[elbee]

Yes I am running belly heat. I inquired when I ordered from Animal Plastics if I needed slpit tape to run 2 thermostats and they told me I did not. I pondered over it but since the colubrids had room to thermoregulate i went with the heat tape with just one set of clips.

[Skiploder]

It's on the warm side.

How much gap do you have between the tub and the shelf of the rack?

It may be possible to cool down the ambient and tone down the hot spot.

(1) If there is a gap between the tub and the shelf of the rack - measure it. Buy a thin sheet of XPVC from somewhere like tap plastics. It should be the same length and width as the shelf and fit the thickness of the gap. If you put one on each shelf that houses a colubrid and slide a tub on top of it, it will muffle some of the heat, making the hotspot a little bit cooler.

(2) Ventilate the heck out of the colubrid tubs insuring that any heat generated by the heat tape is allowed to escape and doesn't add to the ambient temp.

(3) Lower the ambient in the room to 76 or 77 degrees.

(4) Place the colubrids in the lower part of the rack - heat rises.

(5) Place a fan in the room and make sure that air conditioning gets nice and circulated.

I keep the ambient in my snake house during the day at about 74 degrees in the summer (I'm all colubrids). In both my Freedom Breeder racks and my old Sandemar racks, the ambient in the drawers is about 2 ticks higher during the heat of the day. At night I let the temp drop into the high 60s (also during the summer) and the ambients stay around 71 to 72.

Sparely ventilated tubs in an enclosed rack will heat up slightly even with belly heat. Drop the ambient in the room a few degrees and give those colubrids a bit of a break.

[ed4281]

For my colubrids I honestly don't provide heat ( I'm gonna catch flack but it works for me so.....) during the summer. The ambient temp in my snake room is 80 - 82 with a fan and humidifier, because my apartment is really dry. They do just fine never miss a meal and grow very well. I also live in Texas, so I feel your pain.

[ed4281]

Forgot to mention during the winter they get a hot spot of 86