Can I keep hogs like this?

So, right now I'm heating my ball pythons solely with ambient heat- my snake room (walk in closet...eh-hem...) Is kept at 80-86 F constantly. I haven't seen any posts here about people heating their hoggies this way. Is this a reasonable way to heat this species?

I want to say yes, but I could be wrong. I know that people keep corns like this.

Im definitely not the person to ask for advise, but my hoggie loved his belly heat.

You should probly try to hook up some belly heat for your balls before you get a hoggie.

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Originally Posted by interloc

You should probly try to hook up some belly heat for your balls before you get a hoggie.

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why?

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Originally Posted by Mike41793

why?

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I just feel like its safer. Balls like to thermoregulate. Only giving them ambients somewhat limits this. It's probly possible to not but I wouldn't personally so I was trying to offer my opinion.

80-86 is a pretty wide range. What are you using to heat your snake room? I think I would second the belly heat and get your ambient temp to stay around 80 without much deviation. The range you are having is the whole room and is approaching the hotpot limit. If it gets there you are not giving your snakes a retreat. I heat my snake room with a oil heater and it is a constant 80.1.

I would add belly heat and keep the room at 80.

As for a hoggy they are kept but many people in many different ways. Personally mine is in a glass tank in my living room (68°) and she has a 60 watt bulb keeping her ambient around 78-80, a hotspot on a log under the light at 87-90. I also have a small uth at 90 since she is usually buried in the eco earth.

I have found this site to be helpful for hognose info.

http://extremehogs.com/Caresheet.html

I have kept hognose now for 5 years, before that I had corns. I heat my entire snake room with an oil filled radiator that I have plugged into a Johnson thermostat. I do not use belly heat, never did. I keep the room at 82 degrees, I have had no problem with feeding, shedding, fertility, ect. My holdbacks from 2012 are all already over 100 plus grams. Some may not agree doing it this way, but not only does it work for me, but I don't have a room full of heat tape and wires,.. I have a page on FB, if you care to check it out its " The Hog Farm"
Also by keeping your room at 82 degrees you can incubate your clutches by just placing them on a shelf in the room.

I think your main source of heating should be from belly heat with the ambient temps to supplement the temperature, like Interloc originally said. You want your critters to be warm but you don't want to swelter them.

Can't say much on the topic of Hogs though.

My hoggie LOVES his belly heat. I tried just having a tub at snake room temp (80ish) and he would not eat. Got some belly heat (88-90) and boom, became more active and started feeding like a champ.

Not 100% positive on western hogs but the eastern hogs around here love basking on rocks, blacktop, etc. That is where I see most wild specimens at any rate so personally I would be tempted to use a CHE or UTH to give them a basking spot.
That is going on an assumption that western hognose are about the same as eastern hognose except for the taste for toads that the easterns have.

The controller I mentioned is a Johnson A419, I got it from Rich, at Reptile Basics.. he sells then all set up ready to plug in :)
http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a3...D550/ry%3D400/

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Originally Posted by jinx667

My hoggie LOVES his belly heat. I tried just having a tub at snake room temp (80ish) and he would not eat. Got some belly heat (88-90) and boom, became more active and started feeding like a champ.

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Same here man.

Thanks for all the replies, guys. I'm heating with an oil heater, too. I don't have it hooked up to a thermostat- just relying on the one it was built with. I check temps multiple times a day, though, and they've begun to balance out now that I've tweaked it here and there. It's holding pretty steady at 83-84.

I just moved here from Kansas, and I didn't bring my thermostats or flexxwatt with me. Dont ask me. I dont know. Crazy, stressful, last minute move. Right now I'm just waiting for them to be moved. Should be here next week! Just trying to keep my guys happy with what I've got in the meantime.

My question was just out of curiosity. Hoggies are the next snake I want to get into, and I just wanted to know what you guys thought. It would be awesome if I could just have one warm room, instead of lots of little heaters. No worries though, If I did this long term, I would definitely get a thermostat for my oil heater.

I think for now, since I'm still fairly new to the hobby, I'll stick with the old standbys. I would love to see someone do a study on the health of various snakes- steady ambient temps vs. self regulating. Does such a study exist?

I keep my hogs at the exact same temps as my balls. The biggest difference is that my hogs have an ambient humidity of 40% while the balls are around 60%.
I do however use belly heat and provide a hot end of 90.F and a cool end of 80.F for thermoregulation.

Aw, you live in one of my favorite towns. :) As you probably know already, HMB has a very temperate coastal climate - so it's pretty easy to keep snake/room temps constant, although I'm not really familiar with how oil heat works.

Personally I keep my hog in the same rack as ball pythons, just for the sake of saving (apartment) space. She's also my only hog, and I don't have anywhere to make a designated "snake room" either. I first put her in the corn's rack, since I thought she would prefer their lower temps and back heat... but I noticed her behavior seemed restless and "off," so I put her in the warmer & belly-heated BP rack instead. She seems much happier there!

Anyway, I doubt there's anything wrong with keeping a Hog in ambient heat, but they might prefer the belly heat - as would the Ball Pythons, I believe.

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Originally Posted by Mike41793

I want to say yes, but I could be wrong. I know that people keep corns like this.

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Yup. I always had to use heat (belly or back) when I lived in San Francisco, but now that I'm in the warmer south bay, I turn off the corns' heat altogether during the summer. Their rack is in the laundry room, which maintains a pretty steady 77-80 degrees during the warm months... and after two summers that way, everyone is still perfectly healthy. ;)

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Originally Posted by Old_School

The controller I mentioned is a Johnson A419, I got it from Rich, at Reptile Basics.. he sells then all set up ready to plug in :)
http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a3...D550/ry%3D400/

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This is the thermostat I use on my oil-filled radiator, also. It's fantastic! Never more that a degree of variation, and I have a large window in that room that plays hell with heating in the winter. OP, I strongly suggest that you invest in a Johnson thermostat, rather than trusting the cheap crap they build into those heaters. I have my heater set at ~88deg with the built-in (back-up), and the Johnson set to 79deg as the primary. Obviously, I use belly heat as well during the winter, but in the summer that room hits a steady 86deg without any supplemental heating at all.