I thought he was dead! :(

So this morning was the morning after I moved. When I woke up and turned Geno's heat lamp on he was balled up kinda oddly in the back and I couldn't see him breathing. I very quickly got him out and he was stiff and cold. I thought it got too cold in there, but it was 73ish degrees I think. His head moved a little bit and I got him under the covers with me to try to warm him up? After like 5 minutes he started moving more and more until he was full on slithering around. Then I went ahead and put him back. I really really hope I didn't do anything wrong and if I did I'm sorry I promise I'd never do it intentionally I LOVE GENO like no other and if I knew I was putting his life at risk I'd do everything in my power to fix it. He's an amazing snake and I never want anything to happen to him. Please tell me what happened if you know! His UTH was on all night like always. Thank you :(

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Originally Posted by GpBp

So this morning was the morning after I moved. When I woke up and turned Geno's heat lamp on he was balled up kinda oddly in the back and I couldn't see him breathing. I very quickly got him out and he was stiff and cold. I thought it got too cold in there, but it was 73ish degrees I think. His head moved a little bit and I got him under the covers with me to try to warm him up? After like 5 minutes he started moving more and more until he was full on slithering around. Then I went ahead and put him back. I really really hope I didn't do anything wrong and if I did I'm sorry I promise I'd never do it intentionally I LOVE GENO like no other and if I knew I was putting his life at risk I'd do everything in my power to fix it. He's an amazing snake and I never want anything to happen to him. Please tell me what happened if you know! His UTH was on all night like always. Thank you :(

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Is there a reason why you turn his heat lamp off at night? 73 is pretty chilly for a ball python; my suggestion would be to leave the heat lamp on 24/7.

Everything I saw told me to turn the heat lamp off if using a heat lamp and UTH, but yes I can defiantly leave it on at night. :)

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Originally Posted by GpBp

Everything I saw told me to turn the heat lamp off if using a heat lamp and UTH, but yes I can defiantly leave it on at night. :)

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what reason is there to turn off a heat lamp because of a UTH? as long as all heating elements are regulated and you know how they work then they will work fine together.

Your tank should be long enough so that there's a warm side and a cool side. Your snake can just move to the other side if it gets too warm/cool so you shouldn't have to mess with your setup. The temperature should be constant. Hope this helps :snake:

I'd leave the lamp on at night, it sounds like you need it to maintain proper ambients during the cooler nighttime hours. A CHE or a red or black heat bulb are my picks for nighttime bulb usage, so it doesn't mess with the snakes photoperiod.

I'm assuming 73 degrees was the ambient (cool side temp) and not the hot spot temp though. If you're reading 73 over the heat pad you'll need to turn the temp on the thermostat up as well.

Thank you, yes there's a temp gradient and he was on his warm side this morning. I guess what happened was he was just too cold? He wasn't directly on top of the UTH, and I've had it where I turn the heat lamp off at night ever since I've got him and he's been fine.:confuzd:

I've had a scare like this before too, only it was too hot. At the time I had a crappy analog thermometer and it was reading 103° and I was afraid I had cooked my snake. I now know that that temp won't actually kill her if she's in there for only a few moments, and those thermometers really suck so that temp probably wasn't even accurate but yeah. There's no real reason to turn off the heat lamp at night. If it was because of the whole lighting/temp change at night, I wouldn't pay it any mind. Changing temps at night is pretty counter intuitive if you think about it, and it can cause things like this to happen. Try leaving the lamp on for the night and see how things are in the morning. Hopefully that helps.


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but it was 73ish degrees I think.

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Here is your main issue " you think", BP husbandry is not a I guess or I think it's a "I measure and I know my temperatures" on both cool and warm side, and "I provide proper husbandry".

If you do not know but guess you cannot provide proper husbandry, and if you do not you will sooner or later deal with anything from food refusal, stress, aggressive behavior and health issues.

So the first steps are to know what your husbandry should be like (See caresheet) and the second is to provide said husbandry using the right tool that are at your disposition.

Well, I am pretty positive it was 73, Like 73-74 ya know, that's why I said I think. And I mean it was right after I woke up I didn't really focus on it I was just focused on checking on him, but I realize I should've payed more attention to it, that's important. Sorry I didn't mean to come off rude! Thank you Deborah :)