Do snakes need airconditioner?

Hi! So I have 6 BPs in a rack, 2 carpets in glass terrarium with RHP and an ATB with RHP as well. I keep them in a small 12*12 feet room in the roof. In summer it is average around 80 F, but for 1-2 month it is easily possible to hit 86-89 F every day like 5-6 hours. Actually I kept them like that last summer as well, but it wasnt a real hot one, and they stopped eating as well. Do you recommend to give them airconditioner? If yes, what temperature would you set it?


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Originally Posted by Kerol

Hi! So I have 6 BPs in a rack, 2 carpets in glass terrarium with RHP and an ATB with RHP as well. I keep them in a small 12*12 feet room in the roof. In summer it is average around 80 F, but for 1-2 month it is easily possible to hit 86-89 F every day like 5-6 hours. Actually I kept them like that last summer as well, but it wasnt a real hot one, and they stopped eating as well. Do you recommend to give them airconditioner? If yes, what temperature would you set it?


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I keep the air in the room around 72 and their heat sources do the rest for the induvial enclosures. If they get to hot is as bad as getting to cold.

If your temps reach the mid to high 80's what you do is keep them with ambient temp only and no hot spot.

I have been keeping my animals the mid 80"s with no hot spot for years.

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Originally Posted by Deborah

If your temps reach the mid to high 80's what you do is keep them with ambient temp only and no hot spot.

I have been keeping my animals the mid 80"s with no hot spot for years.

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I live in the desert, and I have a thermostat/probe in the enclosure of my BPs that hangs down to monitor ambient temperature. If it gets above 85 all heat sources turn off in the enclosure. So yes, you don't want to overheat the snakes. In the winter it's not a problem but in the summer our home thermostat is set at 78-82 and it might get a lot warmer in the enclosure.

So if I understand Deborah and FollowTheSun right, I can simply shut down every heating and they will be fine without cooling the room?

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It depends on just how high your ambient temperatures get and how long they stay high. You can take some fairly easy and inexpensive steps to cool off your snakes without resorting to air conditioning, unless of course you're looking for an excuse to install it.

Some options:
- Replace the warm water in the water bowls with cooler fresh tap water. That will help remove heat in the tubs, or the snakes can wrap around the bowls if they want to cool off.
- Place some plastic bottles filled 2/3 of the way with water on their sides in the freezer overnight. During the hottest part of the day put the bottles in the snake room in front of the rack, and set up a fan to blow air across the bottles so the cooled air hits the racks.
- Install tinted window film designed for the exterior of your windows on the south side of the house; the kind that goes on the inside of the windows doesn't work nearly as well, which is why it's cheap. Last spring I installed BDF EXS15 mirrored exterior window film on my south and west facing windows and noticed a substantial difference in my electric bill and with how warm those rooms got during the day.
- It's a longer-term solution but if you can plant shrubs or trees that will eventually grow up to shade your south and west-facing windows during the summer months that will also help keep the house cooler.

My house has forced air heat/cooling...in winter my thermostat is set to 70* & in summer it's set to 80*. (I'm not keeping BPs, btw...mostly colubrids that
need less heat.) I'm pretty far South & summers are hot, so most of my UTH is turned off during that time, depending on the snake. (I have a spotted python
that requires more heat, & a few desert snakes...so all cages are adjusted individually.)

I agree w/ Deborah's & bcr229's suggestions...note that the one issue with using frozen water bottles to cool a cage is that they drip condensation. Cool air sinks,
so might want them on top of cages? It's awkward but it's an option, anyway.

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

I agree w/ Deborah's & bcr229's suggestions...note that the one issue with using frozen water bottles to cool a cage is that they drip condensation. Cool air sinks,
so might want them on top of cages? It's awkward but it's an option, anyway.

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Yes you can put the bottles on a towel to catch the condensation. That solution is more of a short-term stopgap, say when the power is out during the summer and you have a generator to run the freezer but no central AC available.