Rethinking belly heat

I spoke with Tracy Barker yesterday regarding the fire hazard with belly heat via Flexwatt and she said she does not provide belly heat for her ball pythons or boas except for ovulating females and just keeps the room at 81 degrees. She also said that her females do not hit the "wall" and believes they eat better not being kept so hot. You would be hard pressed to find anyone more knowledgeable than Tracy so I think I'm going to slowly ramp my belly heat down and then eliminate it. Wouldyi like to hear other thoughts on this.

I keep my cornsnake at 80-82 or so with a UTH on one side in case she gets chilled. For the most part, she hangs out on the cool side. I've never had any issues with her. She eats wonderfully, has never regurged, and has never gotten sick.

Being new to snakes but familiar with reptiles for years...I have never really been a fan of Belly heat myself.

In nature, the heat comes from above and warms the ground/surfaces that reptiles are on. While I do have a problem with heat lamps (ones that emit light), I do like heating systems like the Pro Heat that is a heat emitter. It can be regulated with a thermostat, and then for light in your enclosure, a simple softer non heat producing light source will do the trick.

Nothing like having a big spot light beating down on you all day while drying out your enclosure for sure!

It would be interesting to see the long-term results. I think I'll stick with the belly heat for the time being but I'd be interested to see where this goes, if anywhere, and what comes of it if someone does a long-term "study" of back versus belly heat. Wonder if any of the big breeders have ever done something of the sort with two "identical" animals (clutch mates, same genes, sex, morph, etc.) and tried to control as many variables as possible with the only difference in the environment being back versus belly heat. Does it make a difference in their growth rates, temperament, clutch size, fertility, etc.? But then, I'm a nerd and think something like that would be pretty neat, lmao! Hahahaha! I sooooooooooo need to get a life! :D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rawbbeh

Being new to snakes but familiar with reptiles for years...I have never really been a fan of Belly heat myself.

In nature, the heat comes from above and warms the ground/surfaces that reptiles are on.

---

:confused: :confused: :confused:

Keeping snakes at room temps can be done successfully however it is not something I would recommend to a new owner with no experience with BP.

There is also a cost and efficiency factor that need to be assessed obviously keeping a room at a certain temps is only worth it and efficient if a large number of animals are kept, keeping a room in the 80's for a handful of snakes would be very expensive.

We just recently discussed this here

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ent-temps-only

and here

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...24#post1659824

Where you can see what I have been doing for the past year an a half

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Deborah

During the winter they are provided with 78 degrees on the cool side (this is achieve with a oil filled heater) and 88 on the warm side (The warm side is 88 during the day and 80 at night since I cool down my breeders)

During the warmer months (I live in the South) April to September they are kept at 85 with no hot spot, breeders and hatchlings, and yes females have lay their eggs with no hot spot also.

Because the snake room is a bonus room over the garage it gets hotter than in any other parts of the house. To make it efficient energy wise I chose to work with it rather than fighting it having to run the AC to cool it down to 78 and than having to provide a hot spot.

Works great that our second year in this house and the snake have adjusted to this without any issue.

Now would I recommend that to a beginner barely starting out? No I always recommend optimal setting that I know will help a new owner with their animal limiting feeding issues and behavioral problems, once they understand their animal however they should experiment if they feel comfortable enough to do so and find what works for them.

They can be kept various way what necessary is to find what works for your animals and for yourself.

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Clear

:confused: :confused: :confused:

---

I have had lizards (Primarily Bearded Dragons) and turtles. While my turtles I kept outside using natural sunlight for warmth and such. The bearded dragons I had in an enclosure inside. The earth's surface doesn't heat itself. The warmth of the ground on a hot day comes from the sunlight that bears down on it. Likewise. Under the tank heating is not "natural" while above heating is.

Any heat that is absorbed by the ground will lose its heat as it is covered. Take standing on a beach on a summer day. The sand burns your feet. But if you stand in that spot long enough, it loses it's heat and it is more comfortable to stand on. Likewise, a turtle basking on a rock...or an alligator on the shore of a river...

Hence why, I prefer personally, to use a heat emitter mounted in the top of my enclosures to replicate the way the sun heats the earth. UTH's I tend not to use for enclosures except for a temporary enclosure/small enclosure for a baby before it moves up to a more permanent place once it gets bigger.

Just my two cents...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Deborah

Keeping snakes at room temps can be done successfully however it is not something I would recommend to a new owner with no experience with BP.

There is also a cost and efficiency factor that need to be assessed obviously keeping a room at a certain temps is only worth it and efficient if a large number of animals are kept, keeping a room in the 80's for a handful of snakes would be very expensive.

We just recently discussed this here

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ent-temps-only

and here

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...24#post1659824

Where you can see what I have been doing for the past year an a half

---

I do it quite easily. The house has central heating/cooling so all I do is keep the door to my room mostly shut. The house stays in the lower to mid 70s anyways.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rawbbeh

In nature, the heat comes from above and warms the ground/surfaces that reptiles are on.

---

Um no actually. The sun warms the ground. The ground warms the snake. BP's are not known to be big into sun bathing.

Belly heat here and for ever.

My snakes eat non stop and grow very well. Females do their thing and lay eggs.

Do it how ever YOU like not what someone else does and think its the only way to do it. By keeping belly heat your allowed to have room temps 75-80. But when you start using back heat room temps will need to be higher to maintain any stable temp