Is 81-82F too warm for “cool spot”

[Bweiser18]

I’ve noticed the past few days my cool hide is a little warmer than usual. I keep my “cool” area 79-81F ambient. I dropped it down a degree to keep it 79-80F. When I Infrared gun in the hide I get 81.7F at the highest. Is this too warm? My snake is always on the cool side too. Maybe this is the reason why? My hot side is 90F at the glass. I check about 1000 times a day with my infrared gun. Yes it is also controlled on a thermostat.

[Bogertophis]

IMO, yes. Personally, I'd aim for 78* on the low side, especially with the warmest being 90* (some BP-keepers prefer 87-88* tops). And your snake's behavior has already answered you.

[nikkubus]

I know of several people that have it in that range and it works for them, but I prefer to have it 78F so there is a nice gradient and my ball pythons seem to like it better. I don't like to see snakes bowl-hugging and excessively soaking to cool off unless it's a female building follicles, and at 81+ they seem to start doing that a lot more. Always listen to your animals. If they are on the hot spot nonstop without ever moving, it's probably a sign it's not hot enough. If they are constantly on the cool side, bowl-hugging, or soaking a lot, good chance they are too hot. The soaking can be other issues instead of course, so that particular symptom you would have to troubleshoot.

If your cool and warm hides are not identical, its possible they prefer one hide over the other and put thermoregulating < safety from predators, so you may need to get two exactly the same.

[Bweiser18]

78 ambient on that side or just the substrate inside the hide?

[Bweiser18]

Both of the hides are identical. I haven’t seen him in the water or anything trying to cool off but I can for sure drop it down another degree to 78

[Bweiser18]

Thank you fellas! I bumped it down to 79F ambient on the thermostat instead of 80. I will check temperatures again in a few hours to see where I am at. I’ve noticed heat “builds” up after a few hours

[nikkubus]

78 ambient and cool side substrate if possible. If you are having a hard time getting ambient high enough while the substrate is running warmer I'd try to get the substrate no more than 80, and the ambient no lower than 76.

[Bweiser18]

Will do! Yes it does seem like I have a little bit of an issue with what you said. It seems like if I drop my ambient temperature my substrate doesn’t get cool enough but the air temperature does.

[Bweiser18]

So with the thermostat set a little lower I woke up to the cool side at 77 ambient. The warm side was 79 ambient. So i may have to bump it back up and see what I can do? Also. He was in the warm hide this morning for once. Also left me a nice shed in the cool hide.

[nikkubus]

So with the thermostat set a little lower I woke up to the cool side at 77 ambient. The warm side was 79 ambient. So i may have to bump it back up and see what I can do? Also. He was in the warm hide this morning for once. Also left me a nice shed in the cool hide.

How are you heating the enclosure exactly? Do you have two heat sources or just a single UTH? If you have two, you may want to scoot it a little more towards the warm side as you bump the heat up a tiny bit. 79 ambient is low for warm side.