Too Hot?

Try to be brief. Recently moved to FL. I'm keeping all the enclosures in my garage BC of the high humidity and temperature. Which is working well BC I'm seeing 50/60% humidity 24/7. However my ambient temp is around 85/90 thruout the day. The heat lamps aren't even cycling on. I'm worried that the ambient temp is TOO hot and that they don't have a cool enough cold side. Should I be worried or are they OK? They obviously have water available. If this is a problem what are my options? I'm thinking a small 6 in fan? Or maybe a small mister to just spray one side?

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Personally I would say it's too hot. My cool sides are 24°c which is 75f if I'm not mistaken.
Iv never had this problem so don't really have anything to go on but is there a way you could have them in a shed or something and keep the shed temp down which would be easy ?

Also (correct me if I'm wrong please) but wouldn't a fan just move the ambient temp air around and would do very little to actually cool it ?
Same goes for a mister unless the water is kept cold to lower the temp

I thought you said you kept them in the garden not the garage sorry. Could cool the garage.

Well like I said, the garage is insulated but not climate controlled. Putting an AC in here isn't an option but I can def put a fan blowing into their enclosures. That should help lower the temperature a bit

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You would need cool air blowing to lower the temp, blowing hot air is not going to do anything, if your lucky maybe a degree or 2. Your not giving your snakes an option to regulate its body temp especially when its 90 in there which could be stressful not having the option to get away. Right now I'm having the same problem Its 85 in my house but I haven't put my ac units in my windows yet bc are nights are still in the 30. Ive tired fans doesnt work. Luckily outside is around 65 so I'm able to put a fan in my window to blow the cooler air in and that keeps my cool sides at 82 and hot at 90 sometimes lower but then my rhp kicks on. Does your house have ac? If so I would move them inside and your heat devices will do there jobs. You can keep your humidity up with misters or humidifiers, there are lots of ways to improve humidity. My house humidity is at the lowest 15 and highest 25ish and I have no trouble keeping my humidity at 55-60 and no trouble bumping it up to 70 during shed.

Is the ambient temp in your garage the same as the vivs ?

It's actually 2-3 degrees hotter in the Viv's. Greenhouse effect and that jazz. Right now the viv is 92 and the garage is reading 90.

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The humidity might be nice in the garage, but the heat is too much... those animals need the option to move to a cool side, which sounds like you're going to need to bring them inside the house.

Well there are people who don't give a hot side and a cool side, they rely solely on ambient temps. I would assume that 90 might be a little too warm for an ambient temp setup, not sure though.

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If the ambient is pretty much the same then a fan won't do anything.
Iv never heard of someone not having a hot or cold side like suggested above so I don't have any experience with this. I will say that I definitely DO NOT agree with doing that ! A snake needs to thermoregulate and I think it would be cruel not to provide them with that.
Only way around keeping them in the garage and providing the right care that they need would be to cool the garage or at least the area that they are living in
Or if your quite handy you could set up some sort of liquid cooling to create a cool spot which would be pretty sweet. Never seen anything like that before.

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Originally Posted by Scottywelsh

Iv never heard of someone not having a hot or cold side like suggested above so I don't have any experience with this. I will say that I definitely DO NOT agree with doing that ! A snake needs to thermoregulate and I think it would be cruel not to provide them with that..

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Actually quite a few people do this. You have to be in the middle, not to hot not to cool. Even some big breeders do only one ambient temp by heating the room with a oil heater or something. If you think about it a snake moves from 90 spot to 80 spot and the reason may be to balance there temp but if your at the balance temp then there temp is constantly balanced, This is just a guess though. Im sure it took some trial amd error. But plenty of people do one ambient temp with great results. Its not something a beginner should probably be doing bc you need to be able to tell if something is wrong and how to adjust. The gradient is recommend because it is easier and safer for a beginner to set up and failure is less likely. There is always more then one way to do something but the gradient is safest.

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Originally Posted by Scottywelsh

Iv never heard of someone not having a hot or cold side like suggested above so I don't have any experience with this. I will say that I definitely DO NOT agree with doing that ! A snake needs to thermoregulate and I think it would be cruel not to provide them with that.

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There are plenty of breeders who do quite well for themselves with ambient-only setups. As long as the animals needs are being met, which they can certainly be without the typical caresheet recommended hot and cool side, that's all that matters.

I'm glad a couple other people spoke up about that.. lol, didn't feel comfortable defending my post.

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If the ambient temp will work for the snake, that's fine. Where would the temp need to rest in order to get make that a healthy situation for the animal? I'm imagining that 90+ is a little too warm.

OP, if a small AC unit could solve the ambient temp issue, is that still absolutely out of the question? Is it a problem of space, or electricity, or __? It sounds like that might be the best solution if you want to leave the animals where they are, but bring down the temp a little.

90F ambient is too warm, as is 92F. People that heat the whole room, like what you're attempting in a way, keep the rooms in the lower 80s. They probably drop them to high 70s at nite. But never really below that. I've never tried that method myself though.

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Originally Posted by Aercadia

If the ambient temp will work for the snake, that's fine. Where would the temp need to rest in order to get make that a healthy situation for the animal? I'm imagining that 90+ is a little too warm.

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I've never done it but I would assume like any setup it depends on several other factors. But I agree that 90+ would be to high. If 88-90 is considered warm and 80-82 cool I would think somewhere between 84-87. But like I said I'm not all to familiar with it.

I think it's easier to cool the garage than bring them inside. I'd only need to cool it down a couple degrees to alt 85 ish? I can prob go pick up one of those stand up ACs and pipe the exhaust outside. The garage is finished just not climate controlled. A good 5000btu AC should be able to drop it a couple degrees. It's only needed during the day too. At night it falls to a perfect 84-86 ish. A temp solution will prob be a fan blowing over ice/cold water near their Viv's.

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I'm not sure where in Florida you're located but it's worth considering that if it's too warm in there now, then it'll most likely be too hot come August. I think you're going to need a stronger ac unit if you intend to keep them in there.
When I lived in Florida our garage was stifling for a good chunk of the year. We were just north of Orlando while I don't know whether it was insulated well, I'm concerned that you'll have a bigger challenge with the heat as we get closer to summer.

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Originally Posted by Fraido

I'm glad a couple other people spoke up about that.. lol, didn't feel comfortable defending my post.

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Hey. Sorry if it seemed like I was "attacking" you or something. I really did not mean it to come across that way so i apologise.
Like I said I had never heard of anyone doing that because all the big breeders here don't do it that way.
After reading everything about it tho I still completely disagree with do it. . These snakes don't have a constant temp in the wild and move from place to place for that exact reason. If 30c is perfect for a few hours who's to say it's perfect for 12 ? This is all my opinion and everyone does things different.
Good luck with cooling the garage tho.

I live in Orlando, and I wouldn't consider keeping my snakes in a garage here. It gets way too hot in the summer. An AC unit might not be able to keep up with the afternoon heat, and if it fails for some reason, your snakes will cook.

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Originally Posted by Scottywelsh

Hey. Sorry if it seemed like I was "attacking" you or something. I really did not mean it to come across that way so i apologise.
Like I said I had never heard of anyone doing that because all the big breeders here don't do it that way.
After reading everything about it tho I still completely disagree with do it. . These snakes don't have a constant temp in the wild and move from place to place for that exact reason. If 30c is perfect for a few hours who's to say it's perfect for 12 ? This is all my opinion and everyone does things different.
Good luck with cooling the garage tho.

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No worries! I didn't feel as though you were attacking me or anything, I just didn't want to try and say anything else since I don't use ambient temps, and I haven't done any research, I only know what I've come across on the forums here so I didn't feel as though I was qualified to try and explain the method.

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Originally Posted by greco

I live in Orlando, and I wouldn't consider keeping my snakes in a garage here. It gets way too hot in the summer. An AC unit might not be able to keep up with the afternoon heat, and if it fails for some reason, your snakes will cook.

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Yes this. I have lives in South Florida for the majority of my life. Hit 88 in the house yesterday. The garage can get hot enough to kill the animals.

Bottom line is they cant be kept in the conditions there in. They need a change asap. It comes down to move them inside if you have ac or find a safe reliable way to cool the garage. A regular window ac usually bogs down and may even shut off when it rains so that could be an issue. Do you have a basement that is cool that you could move them to?

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Originally Posted by chrid16371

It comes down to move them inside if you have ac or find a safe reliable way to cool the garage. A regular window ac usually bogs down and may even shut off when it rains so that could be an issue. Do you have a basement that is cool that you could move them to?

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A basement in most of florida would very quickly turn into an indoor pool. I'm trying to be funny, but it is true. The rest of what you are saying is 100% correct.

No. Basements are illegal in most of Florida BC of the fact it's below sea level. And I'm about 2hrs North of Orlando, 1 he South of Jax in Green Cove Springs. I discussed it with a buddy. The technicalities of AC the garage and what it entails it moving them inside. It's easier and safer to move then inside. I only put them in there originally thinking the temp and humidity would be perfect. Oddly enough, even ETH the AC on in the house, I still feel the humidity. So maybe it won't be Sao bad. I struggled majorly with humidity up north.

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Awesome. I don't think you'll have any problems keeping humidity up in Florida.

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Originally Posted by YZGuy79

No. Basements are illegal in most of Florida BC of the fact it's below sea level. And I'm about 2hrs North of Orlando, 1 he South of Jax in Green Cove Springs. I discussed it with a buddy. The technicalities of AC the garage and what it entails it moving them inside. It's easier and safer to move then inside. I only put them in there originally thinking the temp and humidity would be perfect. Oddly enough, even ETH the AC on in the house, I still feel the humidity. So maybe it won't be Sao bad. I struggled majorly with humidity up north.

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Sorry to get a little off topic but I've never heard of basements here in Florida being Illegal or anything to do with sea level, it's the water table that prevents basements. You can still have them but it's a LOT of work to set up and maintain.

I get the technicalities with making ac work in a garage though, if you ever want to open the garage door you're basically letting all of the air conditioning out and the air conditioner has to work really hard to remove all that heat from the garage.

Inside you shouldn't have issues with humidity, unless you have a good a/c running nonstop with a well sealed house you shouldn't have the humidity drop all that low. Mine is pretty much always 50% or so and we have the a/c going pretty strong all year. I still had trouble with tanks though, but in racks it's not a concern.

You're probably closer to the real role bks. That's just what I was always told about the lack of basements.

We pretty much came to the same conclusion with the AC. Not to mention ID have to cut a hole in the wall to mount the AC. So we're going to end up moving them insise. I'll be going to the store today to get materials to hold the Viv's.

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http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...370b6c83c1.jpghttp://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...5bd202d6c3.jpghttp://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...ecb7845447.jpg

OK guys. Three pics. Being built. Tanks on. And lamps and heat pads set up. Successfully built it. Designed it to hold 6 full size tanks. The little tank is on the list to get a full sized one. Who knows when I'll get another ball and I really want a gtp soon. I wanted to stain it but they didn't have a stain I liked in stock.

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Nice! Doesn't look like it even took up that much space! I hear you about the humidity up north. I have problems here in PA but I'm still able to maintain it in my vision cages.

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Good looking shelves! Glad to see you got it sorted, this will work better for you long term and keep the animals happy and healthy. :) I like the fingerpainting, that's a nice touch to the place.

Lol. Quick and easy shelves. Definitely not master carpenter work. But it does the job. I love my scaly babies just as much as my real children. Once we all agreed the garage wasn't heathy for them, I wanted them out of there. And the finger painting is from my 5yo boy. Loves to paint but hates being dirty. He washed his hands every time he switched colors. Just rubbing it on the rag wasn't good enough.

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I live in fl. I have my. Ball python collection in my garage. My garage stays around 80 by the morning but through out the day by the time i get home my temps in my garage are 84. Only use heat tape on my hatchling rack...and my herp stat is set to 83.

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The only time in the summer gets really hot... i have a buddy who installed ac in his garage.

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OP, had you ever thought about making a rack for your snakes instead? Since you had to move them into the house,a small rack would take up less space than all those vivariums. Maybe you could have the rack inside for spring/summer and leave the vivariums in the garage for fall/winter?

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