Quote Originally Posted by AntTheDestroyer View Post
The problem with no gradient is that you are assuming there is a sweet spot that the animal wants to be at all the time. First you have to be able to know and hit this temperature. Doesn't it make more sense to give an animal a gradient and let them figure out what temp they want to be at? Second you are assuming the animal wants to be at the same temperature all the time. You even admitted there are times when an animal benefits from being able to increase its temperature. Also as a bit of anecdotal evidence I often see all of my snakes on a hot spot of around 89 degrees, if they didn't appreciate these higher temps they would not be on this side.
I feel I'm assuming less than the current care sheet when compared to their wild environment. Despite how many times it is said, I don't see my animals choosing a tempature, they choose security almost every time. Those times are after eating, which higher tempature just happen to speed up digestion but by no means is it nessisary. Besides that... What other times are there?