No Hot Spot

[3skulls]

I know a few of you don't use a hot spot for your BPs.
Does anyone do this with their hatchlings?

[Mike41793]

Some use back heat. Imo back heat is a lot like not having any hotspot.

[Luciferskeeper]

I was under the impression and believe that belly heat is essential for proper digestion and general health of a ball python. Am I wrong?

[3skulls]

There are a number of people on here that don't use it. I think even someone posted that they took a tour of Nerds facility and they didn't have heat on their racks. (Could be remembering that wrong)

I have Rats and Kings without heat and they have been doing great.

I'm doing some final work on getting the baby room ready and would love to get away with just heating the room.

Mike I would still look at back heat as a "hot spot" because the tubs are smaller. It would still give them that gradient.

[Mike41793]

Yea but back heat only warms the air. Since the tubs are so small, it really doesn't give them a huge gradient imo. If you kept the room at a constant 85deg i bet that balls would be fine. There'd be a bit of risk involved just bc thats not the norm, but id like to see how it turns out.

I keep my bps a bit cooler than a lot of people and they do fine. My hotspot averages 87 (between 86-88) and the cool side is usually mid 70s. I know a lot of people keep the hot sides at 90 and above though.

[carlson]

I have a buddy who keeps his whole room at a set temp and doesn't use hot spots. His animals all eat and breed great with no problems. I use belly heat at 90 because my house gets colder an is harder to heat being a mobile home

[PitOnTheProwl]

One of my buddys only uses a t-stat on his incubator.
His room is heated to between 85 to 87, no heat on his racks at all.

[Kaorte]

I have a hatchling rack that uses back heat. It works just fine and there is more than enough temp gradient. its always very toasty in the back and cooler in the front.

[3skulls]

I can get that room into the upper 80s no problem.

My thoughts were to move the colubrids down into the snake room. Use that room for the babies and just not use the heat tape.

I keep the "colubrid room" at 82* with no hot spots. So I could bump the room up and move them. Anything above 82* and they soak to cool off. They can get heat tape in the main snake room because its kept at 77*

Sorry just thinking out loud.

Anyone else with advice?
Thanks for the thoughts so far.

[Trackstrong83]

Yeah I have a friend who has 60+ snakes and he just heats the whole room to 84. They all eat and breed fantastically.