How Important is Temperature, really?

[Lucryth]

So over the past few days, I've been getting the hang out keeping the temperatures at the correct levels, which includes humidity.
Which brought me to wonder, if the temperature is off only by a few degrees, 4 at the most, how truly important for the ball python is it?
Is the BP in any direct danger with the slightly off temp?

[Sausage]

Temps are possibly the most important part of a BP's enclosure... but if the temps are off by a few degrees, I think the BP will be ok.

[rabernet]

If you can keep your temps between 80 and 84 on the cool side and 90 and 94 on the warm side, you should be fine.

[Rapture]

Usually the advice you receive depends on what a certain person has had success with... Sometimes they differ by a few degrees, but as long as you do your research and try to keep everything pretty constant, the snakes should be okay.

[West Coast Jungle]

If you can keep your temps between 80 and 84 on the cool side and 90 and 94 on the warm side, you should be fine.

I agree, there are alway gonna be some flucuations and night drops but if stay in the general range you should be good. I personally drop my temps at night to 79-80 cool and 88-89 warm to imitate natural cycles. This was is what the Snake keeper does and since they (used to) live in my general area I like to imitate what they have been successful with. Come breeding season I move my breeders to another room wher low ambient temps are 75ish.

[sw204me]

Temps are very important, as long as they are within a few degrees of what people suggest.

However, each snake is different. My male, he hates the warm side with a passion and refuses to ever go over to it. yet my female, who has the exact same temp on her warm side, refuses to leave her heat pad unless she wants to go cruising. So they are very important, although they may never be used, its a choice that needs to be there for them to choose for themselves.

[Purrrfect9]

it also depends on where you "standard" temp range is at. If you want to keep your BP's at 93-94, and the temp spikes 4 degrees which will bring it up to 97-98, BP's will run the risk of being burnt. Correct me if i'm wrong, but I believe anything past 95 is where BP's can start to get burns.

[Lucryth]

Well after observing her for the past few days
Shes mainly been sticking to the cool side, under some grapevine driftwood.
I've seen her on the warm side afew times but not nearly as much as i see on the cool side.
The warm side is there if she gets too cold but it seems like shes doing fine because she'll explore a bit then retreat back to her hide
Not sure what to do about her first feeding though, live or frozen? She's been on live from what I was told but I heard you can get them over to frozen.
Not sure there.

[jeffjr464]

nah it's more like 105-110 or higher that causes burns, 95 isn't even human body temp lol, the next time i touch something and it smolders i'll let ya know

[Purrrfect9]

nah it's more like 105-110 or higher that causes burns, 95 isn't even human body temp lol, the next time i touch something and it smolders i'll let ya know

Last time I checked, humans are endothermic, and not exothermic (like snakes) =P. Beisdes, every animal's ideal body temperature is different, even between mammals. Since reptiles rely on outside sources for heat to digest, they're going to be more sensative to heat than a human ( or any mammal) would.