Rethinking belly heat

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Keeping snakes at room temps can be done successfully however it is not something I would recommend to a new owner with no experience with BP.

There is also a cost and efficiency factor that need to be assessed obviously keeping a room at a certain temps is only worth it and efficient if a large number of animals are kept, keeping a room in the 80's for a handful of snakes would be very expensive.

We just recently discussed this here

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ent-temps-only

and here

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...24#post1659824

Where you can see what I have been doing for the past year an a half

During the winter they are provided with 78 degrees on the cool side (this is achieve with a oil filled heater) and 88 on the warm side (The warm side is 88 during the day and 80 at night since I cool down my breeders)

During the warmer months (I live in the South) April to September they are kept at 85 with no hot spot, breeders and hatchlings, and yes females have lay their eggs with no hot spot also.

Because the snake room is a bonus room over the garage it gets hotter than in any other parts of the house. To make it efficient energy wise I chose to work with it rather than fighting it having to run the AC to cool it down to 78 and than having to provide a hot spot.

Works great that our second year in this house and the snake have adjusted to this without any issue.

Now would I recommend that to a beginner barely starting out? No I always recommend optimal setting that I know will help a new owner with their animal limiting feeding issues and behavioral problems, once they understand their animal however they should experiment if they feel comfortable enough to do so and find what works for them.

They can be kept various way what necessary is to find what works for your animals and for yourself.