Night time temps

Is it ok for the cool side of the tank to get down to 73' with a warm side of 80'

assuming this is for a ball python. yeah it will do... your snake isnt gonna freeze and die tonight, but i do like to keep mine a few degrees warmer. if its eating ok, and shedding ok, i wouldnt worry too much.

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Originally Posted by crewf

Is it ok for the cool side of the tank to get down to 73' with a warm side of 80'

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No, I'm not sure where people keep getting this idea. It's one of the most common misconceptions I've seen, and it's detrimental to the health of your snake.

Temps should be at a constant for all 24 hours, never fluctuating. Your cool end should be at 78-80, ambient temp at 84-85, and you should always have a hotspot of 88-92.

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Originally Posted by Hydrolicious

No, I'm not sure where people keep getting this idea. It's one of the most common misconceptions I've seen, and it's detrimental to the health of your snake.

Temps should be at a constant for all 24 hours, never fluctuating. Your cool end should be at 78-80, ambient temp at 84-85, and you should always have a hotspot of 88-92.

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Some people drop temps for breeding. OP didn't mention if these night drop temps are for breeding purposes or not. I personally don't know the acceptable breeding night drops for ball pythons, but I'm sure someone experienced with breeding night drops will chime in :)

73º is quite cool. Typically most do not allow a hot spot to dip to 80 either . To my mind a cool end temp in the night of 77 or so. Ambient temps of 78-82º would be typical temps.

I'm confused... So in the land of africa, namely west africa, the temperature stays the same all the time and doesn't change from night to day?... Lol... And all this time I figured the sun and the atmosphere worked together to create weather over there just like it does here. So do people with plastic totes in africa find ball pythons climbing inside them all the time because they love them so much, or do the wild pythons in africa still choose to live in nature? Lol

No but the animal isn't in Africa. IMHO allowing the temps to dip so much at night you're just setting yourself up for an Ri. I keep my hotspot 90.f 24/7. My ambients will dip a bit at night. But they still have that hotside to go to when they want to.


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