Need a litte help from my new friends

[Eddie_Z]

Alright friends, I am startin to get a little bit worried now. A couple days ago, the warm side of my tank shot up to around 93 degrees or so & Jack spent almost that entire day on the cool side of his tank which was only around 78 degrees. So, i took down the heat lamp & the temp on the warm side dropped to around 85 & he started to spend more of his time on the warm side. It seemed as though that was how he liked the tank to be but now again, he is spending all of his time today on the cool side of the tank. The warm side is, right now, 83.1 degrees while the cool side is only 73.6. He was on the cool side all day long & when i picked him up this afternoon, he was freezing cold. I put him back in & turned the heat lamp back on cuz i was nervous about his being so cold. He went into his warm side hide for an hour or so but after that he went back over to the cool side. So, i took the heat lamp back down. He has been on the cool side (like i said at only about 74 degrees) for the past 2 & 1/2 hours. I know that if i were to pick him up right now he would be freezing cold again.

Is sumthin wrong? Why is he spending so much time on the cool side of his tank? Isn't it unhealthy for him to be letting his body temp get so low!!?? I know you guys will calm me down with some sort of rational explaination, just please do so in a hurry!!!

[Wizill]

it's not unhealthy at all... you're stressin' way too hard over this. i promise it's much easier than it sounds. nowadays, i hardly pay attention to what side of the enclosure my snakes are on. as long as there are sufficient temperatures, like you seem to have, everything is okay. snakes regulate their temperature by switching sides of the tank, some prefer to be cooler while others prefer to be warmer.

[Eddie_Z]

Well, all you really hafta do to find out how big of a worry wart i really am is ask TigerGenesis. She was the one who got me here from the forums at snakekeeper.com. She was pretty much the only one answering my questions for the first few days that i had Jack & she can tell you that i stress badly about every litle thing.

This is my first experience actually owning my own snake & I just want to make sure that he is happy & healthy so i stress over everything. I also know that he was mis-treated in his old home or at the very least not cared for properly, so i tend to fuss over him even more! Here is to hoping that daddy makes Jack a happy home for a LONG time to come!

[iceman25]

Mine likes half and half. The butt over the warm end and face over the cooler side of things.