What do you use to heat your aquarium?

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Originally Posted by MarkS

I live in MN, it's always cold here. I keep my herp rooms between 75-80 degrees, but even when I've kept the animals in a 68 degree room, I haven't had trouble. Respiratory infections are caused by germs, not temperatures. Too low temps can cause stress to an animal which can exacerbate an ALREADY EXISTING CONDITION, but they do not CAUSE respiratory infections.

If you're worried about ambient temperatures you can alway heat the air in the cage with a light bulb, the problem with these is that they tend to dry the air out as well. Another option is to put a hide box partially over the heat source. An enclosed hide box will trap heat inside and will create an area where the air temps as well as the belly temps are nice and warm. Just make sure it doesn't get too hot.

I guess my main point for the original poster is to point out that belly temps are the most important temperature aspect in the cage. Ambinent air temps, while important, are not as crucial as belly temps, and if you have an unregulated heating pad, it's easy to burn your snake.

Mark

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I think you're splitting hairs here. The lower temperatures weaken their immune systems, making them more susceptible to bacteria and viruses. (not necessarily a pre-existing condition) A walk in the rain won't give you a cold, but may weaken your immune system so you come down with a bug. Either way you end up with a sick animal.

Why do you say that ambient temps aren't as important? I've noticed mine were very sensitive to the air temps, and I was much more prone to fasting during those times.

i have the same size tank for my bp , all you need now is the lamp i use a 75 watt heat bulb for the warm side and a uth on the cool side my substrate is repti carpet also make sure and get some new thermometers and hygrometer to see what your temps are really at, i use the stick on kind. and also instead of aluminum you could also try plastic wrap duct taped to the screen. my temps and humidity are solid 24-7, 95 on the hot side and 82 on the cool side 60-70% humidity. if you cant get your humidity right put another water bowl under the lamp, it will bump up for sure. my bp seems to be pretty comfortable.

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I think you're splitting hairs here. The lower temperatures weaken their immune systems, making them more susceptible to bacteria and viruses. (not necessarily a pre-existing condition) A walk in the rain won't give you a cold, but may weaken your immune system so you come down with a bug. Either way you end up with a sick animal.

Why do you say that ambient temps aren't as important? I've noticed mine were very sensitive to the air temps, and I was much more prone to fasting during those times.

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I don't think thats splitting hairs at all. I've never had a sick animal due to low temperatures. I've seen too many gloom and doom posts warning people that they risk sickness and disease for their animals if the ambient temps are too low. In my personal experience it has never happened. I'm not saying that it couldn't happen, I'm just saying that the odds seem to be a lot smaller then would be indicated by the number of posts I've seen on the topic.

Mark

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Originally Posted by MarkS

I don't think thats splitting hairs at all. I've never had a sick animal due to low temperatures. I've seen too many gloom and doom posts warning people that they risk sickness and disease for their animals if the ambient temps are too low. In my personal experience it has never happened. I'm not saying that it couldn't happen, I'm just saying that the odds seem to be a lot smaller then would be indicated by the number of posts I've seen on the topic.

Mark

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Could you describe your personal experience? I've only kept mine for about 2 years, so I will not say I'm an expert by any means. That is why I rely on information from people who have kept these animals for decades. From my limited experience, they've been right on the mark. So what temperatures do you maintain your collections at and how long have you kept them that way? I'm always open to listening, but just because something hasn't happened to you doesn't mean it won't. I'd rather err on the side of caution here.

Ambient temps play a role in triggering breeding, so if your trying to initiate breeding the ambient temps are real helpful. I think the main concern is digestion and metabolism which is directly related to temps. The correct temps make happy snakes which eat and breed better and more predictable. I did read in the Barker's last book that he would rather be slighlty cooler than slightly warmer but remember 80 is on the cool side for a BP. Animals will survive under unfavorable conditions but that doesn't make it good.

I had a snake with a RI and the first thing they tell you to do is keep the temps on the high side it improves their immune system. And they do stay on the heat when they don't feel well.

Well, I'm certainly no expert by any means either. But if you want a resume, here it is. Just counting off the top of my head, I currently maintain 99 ball pythons, 81 colubrids, 7 pythons of various other species and a boa. These numbers include babies from this year.

I'm a relative newcomer to ball pythons though, I've only been breeding them for 5 years. I got my first one in 1999 (still have him too). Before that my main focus was on colubrids, mainly corns kings and milks. I've been breeding them for about the past 15 years. I got my first 'store bought' snake (a corn snake) in 1978. Before that I'd been keeping whatever I could catch in the woods and swamps out in back of my house, mainly garter snakes and red belly snakes.

I haven't kept any quantity of snakes in aquariums for the last 10+ years, but I used to have shelves filled with 10 and 20 gallon aquariums. Most everything I have now are kept in racks. The few individual cages I have contain a few burms, a carpet python and a boa. The one snake I currently keep in an aquarium is a coastal carpet python thats in a 40 gallon breeder tank. She's in a room thats about 68-70 degrees and has a heating pad only. I've maintained her that way now for about 4 years. In the past though, before I started maintaining larger numbers of balls and keeping them in rack systems, I kept them in aquariums (because I'd moved all of my colubrids to racks and the aquariums were available) Some of them were kept this way for over 2 years with just a heating pad for heat.

The only time I've ever experienced a respiritory infection was with a burmese python that I was holding temporarily. He's fine now after undergoing a series of baytril injections. The other burms that I was maintaining in the same type of caging with the exact same temps using the same type of heat pad are all doing just fine.

Mark

Geez, am I jealous of that collection! http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k1...ke/drool51.gif A girl can dream. :D

Admittedly we're not experts and you don't even maintain your bp collection in tanks. (neither do I, after much difficulty maintaining temps which DID result in fasting but no RIs) It doesn't seem like the best advice to give to newbies, who are looking for the best conditions to keep their animals in. That is why I feel that we should defer to those who are, and offer that information with what experiences we have had. I appreciate you discussing your view and opinions so clearly. :gj:

Sorry about the delayed response.
About using dimmers/rheostats:

David and Tracy Barker (VPI)
Ball Pythons: The History, Natural History, Care and Breeding (2006)
Pythons of the World, Vol. II
p. 153-154

"Some keepers advocate the use of thermostats [to control heating devices], while others use rheostats. We are in the rheostat camp for several reasons."

1) cost less
2) fail less, and with less serious consequences, than a thermostat
3) "give our snakes a more constant variation of temperatures as the ambient temperatures in our snake rooms change"

Oh and on the subject of ambient air temps, the Barker's caution to not heat the air too much, as it can prevent the snake from cooling off. There is much much more on that topic, which I'm not going to transcribe. They recommend ambient temps of 78-80 with a hot spot of 86. They believe that keepers have been traditionally keeping snakes too hot. Food for thought.

If you can't find a place for it, you can put it up for adoption on petfinder.com or even just take it into a petco. The only problem with petco is that you'll have to give up your enclosure, but at least in my store, the animals put up for adoption don't stay in the store for more than three days. That's how i got my snake anyway.