Cool Side / Ambient ... How low can you go?

My ambient air is 73 degrees, but the ambient air in my snake tubs is between 78-81. This is because while ventilated the tubs are heated and the ambient temp on the cool side is raised aboved the rooms ambient air (unless you don't heat the tubs and only heat whole room) The ambient temp can be measured with a thermometer, which is a good idea.

If snakes need a gradiant of temperatures to thermoregulate, then provided you had say a 10 foot long tank you could put one side at 60 F and bump the temperature 10 degrees every 2 feet, giving a range from 60-100. I'm not saying anybody should do this, I just don't know how this would hurt the animal. What's the cool/ambient air temp in this case?

The other thing is ambient air temperature can change quite a bit depending on your setup, and I'm not sure it hurts the animal. In my apartment, we try to keep our air temp between 67 and 77. Cooler in the winter, warmer in the summer. Every snake has an UTH (which coveres about 1/4th of the tank), and according to the manufacturer, it is to raise air temp by 5-10 degrees. So on the very low side it could reach 67, but each snake then has a large space that is in the 72-77 range. I suspect its closer to the middle at 74 or 75. During the day, things get warmer because the apartment gets warmer.

You've got to figure that in nature these snakes experience a wide range of temperatures and humidity levels. Some species may tolerate some better than others, but all of them must do pretty well to have survived evolutionary pressures.

The ultimate concern I think is making sure you snake has a warm spot and a cool spot. An enclosure that is too cool everywhere (or too hot) doesn't allow for the snake to regulate itself.

Just my 2 cents.

I can actually explain this. Look at the anatomy of a snake every organ is elongated. The there is a long lung (short one too in some but it is not of concern for this discussion) the lung runs past the heart liver and all the large circulatory system (arteries and veins). The air inside the lung will alter the blood temps. This effects the core temp. When snakes get cool the blood is pulled to the core, away from the muscles on the exterior, and that makes regulating core temps with the surface temperature even harder. Ambient air temps are quite important with low air temps thermoregulation becomes harder and snakes will often hug the hot spot.

I have a pet theory that this is when snakes will burn themselves, attempting to get the core warm by laying on an overly hot surface. No evidence just a flight of fancy on my part.

I have wondered about this topic as well and while I would love to see the cool side never dip below 78, mine is usually 74 and so I have the warm side set to 93. It's been this way for a while and I have seen no adverse effects thus far.

Snake seems content, utilizes both sides, and eats like a champ.

I'm not sure what you mean by "ambient air/cool side temps." Everyone here seems to be responding as if you're saying, "ambient air temps on the cool side." However, in a rack situation, the ambient temps from one side of a typical tub to the other would vary hardly at all.

At any rate, I doubt you could maintain even the lowest temperature in your poll in the rack if you cooled your room as low as 60 degrees F. But if you could, and you were talking about essentially only 8 hours per 24 hours in the low 70's (let's say you mean the air temp and the substrate temps are in the low '70's in the tubs), then, no, I wouldn't think a healthy ball python would have any problem at all. That's assuming it could then warm up to whatever it's preferred temps are for the balance of the day.

As others have pointed out, what you don't want are too-low ambient temps and too-high substrate temps forcing the snake to make the choice we all know it would make.

http://gallery.pethobbyist.com/data/...llBurn-med.jpg
(No, not my snake)

Thanks for all of the responses! I had my room at 79, which resulted in 80-81 degree air and surface temps inside the tub at the coldest spot. Dropping my room to 73 made a huge difference for my comfort and still kept air temps at 78 and surface temps of 76 at the coldest spot. I think I'll leave it this way and feel comfortable now. I also only offer hides at 90 and 80 while utilizing the cooler space for the water bowl. One of my questions was whether or not the snake "wandering" into a slightly cooler spot would compromise its immune system. It sounds like this isn't the case. Cheers.

jfmoore agreed air temps are very often with in a degree of two equal everywhere but it is also true that unheated sides cool sides are also basically the same as the air temps. Even in heated cool side the surface cool is still only a few degrees different than the air temps if balanced properly (air flow and location) For most they are close to the same. I believe burns happen not just by a heater that is too hot but in combination with air temps that are too cool. I am not sure of this but it is my pet theory.

My ambient temps are anywhere between 70-80 depending on the weather and if my husband is feeling too warm in the apartment. I do keep a space heater in my room to help boost the temperature a bit though.

My cool sides are usually in the low-mid 70s on winter nights and I find my snakes hanging out there as often as not.