Basking area...

[Wizill]

How necessary is it that I have a basking area for my snake? I'm using an aquarium (for the time being) and the heat lamp puts the hygrometer in desert mode. It really is getting to be a pain. So what I'm asking is... Would a good floor temp of 85 on one side and 93 on the other do fine? He never gets under the lamp anyway... Thanks..

-Will

[RPlank]

Those temps are fine....if anything I would suggest a cold end of 80ish. You will probably never find him "basking" like lizards do. All mine normally stay in the high 80's area of the enclosure.

[Jeanne]

ok, here is a pic of my set up at the bottom of this post.

The left side is my cool side, the right my warm side.


Left side: has a human heat pad under it, just to keep it from getting too low since it is aweful cold here in Ohio and only getting colder. You can see there is a lamp over the cool side..but it is not facing down, just turned more to the right side. Heating pad is at low-med. setting depending on weather change and off when it is warmer. This area stays around 76-80.

Right side: has a human heating pad under it, with a heat emitter pointing straight down. Heating pad is on med-hi setting because it is only supplimenting the heat emitter cause I chose to get a lower wattage. I do not provide a basking area, at one time I did, and my boys never used it at all. In fact, they avoided it. The temp on the warm side stays 90-95, and I dont like to let it get any warmer cause my boys leave that area totally then.


*All snakes seem to like things tad bit different than others, so you just adjust accordingly. As long as your heat ranges are appropriate on both sides you are fine. Along with keeping your humidity level right. I keep mine between 50 and 60%, never letting it get over 60%. I dont trust letting it get higher than that.

**I have lots of books on bp keeping, and the advice on humidity varies from all... some say 50-60% while others say up to 80%. But it was only a few months ago, and I cant remember which forum it was..I just know it was a yahoo forum, that someone kept thier humidity at around 80% and thier bp came up with a respiratory infection. And this person was told that 80% was too high by the vet that checked thier bp out.. something to the effect, they come from dryer climates and their bodies cant handle that much humidity in the lungs, thus causing a RI. And temps vary in these books too, so I chose a happy medium based on the books and what my boys seemed to like. I did do some reseach however on temps in Africa, and humidity levels, and really could not come up with much... so I came up with what seemed right to my boys. You may have to do the same. You will be able to tell if your snake likes things the way you have it, just watch and take the cue your snake gives. Hope this helps.