Hot Spot at Night?

[AnaKendoll]

Hello! First post on this website. Just a question I've been having for awhile but can't seem to find a solid answer when I looked it up.

I've had my ball python for nearly three years this fall, and I've always kept the left side of her cage cooler and the right side of her cage warm, her 'hot spot' area. The lamp I use for her hot spot area has just a typical day-light lamp bulb. At night, around 9pm, I turn the lamp off but keep an under tank heat pad on, which is on throughout the day depending on how warm the outside weather causes my room to get. The light gets turned back on in the morning around 9am. However, since I turn the lamp off at night, the temperature in her warm side drops a considerable amount.
The temperature on her warm side doesn't get too cold at night, I still make sure it's in the 80's, but it isn't as warm as during the day.
The question I have is, does she need to have her around 87-90*ish hot spot on twenty four seven, so even during the night she has access to the heat, or is it only necessary to have on during the day? Is it alright that I unplug the lamp at night and the temperature drops? If she does need the hot spot on twenty four seven, should I buy a night lamp that either has no light or a 'night light'?
I used to use a night-time lamp during the night that provided a bit of warmth but was mainly used as a nightlight, but stopped using that as she truly didn't seem to care whether or not she had a gentle light on during the night. Since then, I have been keeping her temperature this way and I have never noticed any signs that she was stressed, too cold, or unhappy with the temperature. Despite not noticing any signs or changes, I did want to ask because I know there are still many things about owning a snake that I need to learn about, this being one of them. If she should be getting her hot spot twenty four seven and not dealing with cooler temperatures throughout the night, then I want to buy a night light as soon as possible so she is the most comfortable she can be.

Thanks in advance!

[GoingPostal]

How would you tell if she was unhappy or too cold? Ideally the temps you are shooting for would be low 80s for an ambient and then a hot spot of 87. I would use your UTH for the hot spot and a heating lamp only if needed to raise the ambient temp high enough. I'd skip the light emitting bulbs and go for a ceramic heat emitter on a dimmer. Is your UTH on a thermostat?

[christineho]

How would you tell if she was unhappy or too cold? Ideally the temps you are shooting for would be low 80s for an ambient and then a hot spot of 87. I would use your UTH for the hot spot and a heating lamp only if needed to raise the ambient temp high enough. I'd skip the light emitting bulbs and go for a ceramic heat emitter on a dimmer. Is your UTH on a thermostat?

I echo what GoingPostal said here. She needs to always have a spot that is 88-90 and accessible -- the UTH on a thermostat should more than accommodate this. It's not that she shouldn't be "dealing with cooler temperatures", it's that she should always have the choice between cool and warm, so it's best to maintain both options with as much accuracy as possible.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

You could let the temp drop but I do not recommend it, if you want your animal to be consistent in his feeding behaviour I would highly recommend to keep everything constant 24/7 year round.

BP are very susceptible to slight changes, now if it was another species my answer would be different.

[Absololol]

In the wild bps spend a lot of time in old rodent/termite burrows which I believe tend to be pretty consistent temperature wise both the day and night

I'd just keep it on 24/7, since most bps prefer eating at night it's also probably good for their digestion to have the hot spot still available for them then. Just a thought (assuming you're using uth or Che... I would not use a light emitting bulb at night.)

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk

[EL-Ziggy]

I'm gonna strongly disagree here. Your BP, nor any snake, needs a 90 degree hot spot 24/7. All of my snakes get a pretty modest nighttime temperature drop. My house cools down naturally and I also adjust their CHEs or RHPs a few degrees cooler. I'll even turn them off completely sometimes. The ambient room temps will drop into the low to mid 70s and all my snakes do just fine. I believe as long as the snake has access to a hot spot during the day it can easily survive normal nighttime temps.