Quote Originally Posted by Skiploder View Post
So, my set up is unique in that I have a separate building for my reptiles. I also do not keep anything but varanids, heloderms, and colubrids these days. I sold off my boids years ago. Our tortoises are kept outside in pens.

The building is kept at roughly 73 to 75 degrees during the day. Everything I have basks, so they are given basking sites of some sort. The front of the building is about 35% window, so temps increase slightly during the day. During the summer I let temps drop uncontrolled at night and during the winter I control the drop.

Now, if I were to use the same building for ball pythons, I would experiment around to find an ambient temperature in the building that lowers to about 77 degrees at night and allows for a range of about 82 to 88 in the enclosures depending on the time of the day.

I would also not provide a hot spot, but a slightly - very slightly - warmer basking spot during the first few hours of the night to stimulate the elective behavior of finding some residual heat after the sun goes down.

I think that once dialed in, I could provide a natural cycle.
The inner perfectionist in me just found a proportional thermostat available that can make daily/monthly adjustments to lighting/humidity/temperature based upon preset climate zones (that are fully customizable). In my own perfect little world, I would love to have that kind of flexibility. Perhaps some day...