No Hot Spot

I know a few of you don't use a hot spot for your BPs.
Does anyone do this with their hatchlings?

Some use back heat. Imo back heat is a lot like not having any hotspot.

I was under the impression and believe that belly heat is essential for proper digestion and general health of a ball python. Am I wrong?

There are a number of people on here that don't use it. I think even someone posted that they took a tour of Nerds facility and they didn't have heat on their racks. (Could be remembering that wrong)

I have Rats and Kings without heat and they have been doing great.

I'm doing some final work on getting the baby room ready and would love to get away with just heating the room.

Mike I would still look at back heat as a "hot spot" because the tubs are smaller. It would still give them that gradient.

Yea but back heat only warms the air. Since the tubs are so small, it really doesn't give them a huge gradient imo. If you kept the room at a constant 85deg i bet that balls would be fine. There'd be a bit of risk involved just bc thats not the norm, but id like to see how it turns out.

I keep my bps a bit cooler than a lot of people and they do fine. My hotspot averages 87 (between 86-88) and the cool side is usually mid 70s. I know a lot of people keep the hot sides at 90 and above though.

I have a buddy who keeps his whole room at a set temp and doesn't use hot spots. His animals all eat and breed great with no problems. I use belly heat at 90 because my house gets colder an is harder to heat being a mobile home

One of my buddys only uses a t-stat on his incubator.
His room is heated to between 85 to 87, no heat on his racks at all.

I have a hatchling rack that uses back heat. It works just fine and there is more than enough temp gradient. its always very toasty in the back and cooler in the front.

I can get that room into the upper 80s no problem.

My thoughts were to move the colubrids down into the snake room. Use that room for the babies and just not use the heat tape.

I keep the "colubrid room" at 82* with no hot spots. So I could bump the room up and move them. Anything above 82* and they soak to cool off. They can get heat tape in the main snake room because its kept at 77*

Sorry just thinking out loud.

Anyone else with advice?
Thanks for the thoughts so far.

Yeah I have a friend who has 60+ snakes and he just heats the whole room to 84. They all eat and breed fantastically.

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Originally Posted by Mike41793

Yea but back heat only warms the air. Since the tubs are so small, it really doesn't give them a huge gradient imo. If you kept the room at a constant 85deg i bet that balls would be fine. There'd be a bit of risk involved just bc thats not the norm, but id like to see how it turns out.

I keep my bps a bit cooler than a lot of people and they do fine. My hotspot averages 87 (between 86-88) and the cool side is usually mid 70s. I know a lot of people keep the hot sides at 90 and above though.

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My room temps are 74-78 ambient due to being in the basement and my hot spots are 88-90...I check all snakes once a day and everyone is doing great except the male lesser who is in a funky seasonal food slump....

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Originally Posted by 3skulls

I can get that room into the upper 80s no problem.

My thoughts were to move the colubrids down into the snake room. Use that room for the babies and just not use the heat tape.

I keep the "colubrid room" at 82* with no hot spots. So I could bump the room up and move them. Anything above 82* and they soak to cool off. They can get heat tape in the main snake room because its kept at 77*

Sorry just thinking out loud.

Anyone else with advice?
Thanks for the thoughts so far.

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I see no problem with that as long as it doesn't bother the colubrids too much to be kept warmer

They'll be going into cooler ambient temps with a hot spot.
My rambling might not be clear :p

Oh. Nm i read that wrong lol

I have hot spots for all my snakes.
However I do know a few people who just heat up the room without a hotspot. 85 seems to be the common consensus and their snakes are thriving.

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Originally Posted by Luciferskeeper

I was under the impression and believe that belly heat is essential for proper digestion and general health of a ball python. Am I wrong?

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Any type of heat will work for digestion, whether it be air or belly heat.
Heat and warmth increase metabolic rate aka the foundation of digestion.

I have been experimenting with this a bit.

I built a separate room, much like a large incubator for several Ball Pythons ranging from hatchling up to adult female. The "room" is set to be 89 during the day and 85 at night. It's dark in the 24/7, so I think the night temp drops help to achieve a natural day/night cycle.

They eat consistantly, shed properly and pass waste normally.

I have not bred them in this environment just yet, but when the time comes I planned to increase the humidity in the afternoons when I get home from work. Really pump it up for an hour or so, then let it drop back down to normal. And thats it. No temp changes. I noticed that in the tropics, it rains in the winter months in the afternoons a lot.

Not sure if this will work, but I'm going to try.

What methods have you heard of for breeding without hot spots? Perhaps thre is already a tried and tested method I can adopt without trying to reinvent the wheel!

So far all my babies seem to be doing good. Some of the Carpets are being picky eaters but I have only offered F/T and will be trying live next weekend. Others have ate every time.
The Rat snakes and Cal Kings are doing great. Never refuse and are putting on size.

Once I get my new baby racks in, I'm not sure if ill go to a hot spot or just keep the room temps up.

We heat our room to 85F with no hotspots. We don't change anything for breeding, but the light cycle changes naturally because the room has a window. We also maternally incubate. We have 12 clutches laid so far, and are expecting at least 22 more so it seems to be working. I suspect that if you try to breed with the temps at 89 and no gradient you may have some trouble...I believe that 89 is too high for a constant temp.

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Originally Posted by FireStorm

We heat our room to 85F with no hotspots. We don't change anything for breeding, but the light cycle changes naturally because the room has a window. We also maternally incubate. We have 12 clutches laid so far, and are expecting at least 22 more so it seems to be working. I suspect that if you try to breed with the temps at 89 and no gradient you may have some trouble...I believe that 89 is too high for a constant temp.

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What's your average incubation length and hatchling weight incubating at 85F if you don't mind me asking?

Our hatchling weights ranged from 70 to 98g with most hatchlings being between 80 and 90g. This was bigger than what we had seen with higher incubation temps, but last year was the first year for maternal incubation. Previously we used an incubator at 87.5F. For hatch times, we saw from 63 days to 79 days if I remember correctly. Last year we just had the dates the females laid on their cage cards, so I don't have a consolidated record... We are keeping more detailed records this year, as it seems like we have had a lot of people ask.

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Originally Posted by Mike41793

Yea but back heat only warms the air. Since the tubs are so small, it really doesn't give them a huge gradient imo. If you kept the room at a constant 85deg i bet that balls would be fine. There'd be a bit of risk involved just bc thats not the norm, but id like to see how it turns out.

I keep my bps a bit cooler than a lot of people and they do fine. My hotspot averages 87 (between 86-88) and the cool side is usually mid 70s. I know a lot of people keep the hot sides at 90 and above though.

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That's exactly like mine..my hot side is 85-88 I also do have a UTH which is set at about 86 and a Cool side is about 78

I have a rack with adult females that uses back heat and another rack for adult females that uses belly heat .. when it comes to follicle growth, breeding and egg production there is no difference AT ALL - all have healthy eggs and pretty much at the same time .. when it comes to feeding there is no difference AT ALL .. that is why I use back heat from now on - 1 large heat tape over the entire rack, it is much less work than with 10 small heat tapes

as for my hatchlings, when i first got a bunch of hatchlings i kept the room temperature at 86 24/7 with NO hot spot .. they ate and grew just fine, the females that I kept like this produced healthy eggs at about 18months of age

I'm sure Brian at BHB heats the rooms the snakes are in rather than having individual heat mats/strips etc. Anyone who has watched snake bytes will know his snakes all do very well! I personally have hot spots but I have a relatively low number of BP's so it's more affordable that way for me :)

I've kept hatchlings in the past with no "hot spot" and they did just fine. The room was heated to about 80...

He does heat the room. But he also uses belly heat on some of his racks. Ive heard him say he uses flexwatt on thermostats in some of the racks.

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Originally Posted by led-zep

He does heat the room. But he also uses belly heat on some of his racks. Ive heard him say he uses flexwatt on thermostats in some of the racks.

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I wasn't 100% thanks for clearing that up! :)

No problem. But yeah It appears he does rely on controling the rooms tempature for the most part.


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My rom is on avg 69-72 degrees. I have a 20 long for my 2 month old BP,with a 75 watt bulb directly above his hide on the warm side...this bulb keeps the tank super warm and humidity is quiet good as well,also the hides black plastic and conducts the heat well,so under his hide every warm and humid,I also keep some aspen in his hide for humidity