Too hot?

[KMG]

Everybody has their own methods, the methods are far less important than the results.

Hang around. Im not sure you will agree after you see some methods. Some methods are just wrong regardless of the results.

[JodanOrNoDan]

KMG, Hammertime,

You are both correct in my world. An inexperienced keeper's best and safest path to success is to duplicate what others have done and take their advice. Once you have an advanced understanding of your animals and the things that can go wrong by all means experiment. At this stage you will know when your experiment is going wrong. If no one is experimenting we will never find out new things. I do not go by the book on everything I do. Sometimes things work, sometimes they don't but I have enough experience to know when I would be putting my animals in danger.

[KMG]

KMG, Hammertime,

You are both correct in my world. An inexperienced keeper's best and safest path to success is to duplicate what others have done and take their advice. Once you have an advanced understanding of your animals and the things that can go wrong by all means experiment. At this stage you will know when your experiment is going wrong. If no one is experimenting we will never find out new things. I do not go by the book on everything I do. Sometimes things work, sometimes they don't but I have enough experience to know when I would be putting my animals in danger.

Yep, and until the experiment has been properly tested you should keep it to yourself. I have done that. I have no problem with people trying knew things. However when I give advice to new keepers I give the basic and safe advice. They need time to learn and become experienced keepers at which point they will be armed with the proper knowledge and can do just what you said.

I don't think we are that far from thinking the same thing.

[PitOnTheProwl]

As I always say...... What works in one house may not work in another.

[chrid16371]

As I always say...... What works in one house may not work in another.

This is the answer to the back and forth in this thread. Everyone has good points but it comes down to exactly this "what works in one house may not work in another."

I use an rhp that runs the length of my cage with a heat mat and this is not how anyone I heard of runs them. The typical 1/3 cage rhp does not work in this house. I had to run a heat mat both hot and cold before I switched to an rhp and now my temps are flawless and my male bp is happier. Also my heat mat doesn't have to be set as high to get the correct hot spot 92 under sub and 90 on top. My female is in a cage half the size and she has 2 mats and she is happy. I know these methods are not what most people use but its what I have to do to keep my temps right and I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

I also would like to add maybe the 2-3 degree drop in ambient could be an issue do to the 60 degree basement. If it is a problem maybe adding another heat source would be good idea or an oil filled heater. If your basement is to big to heat with an oil heater you could always throw up a couple walls to make a little room for snake and then the heat from the heater would have nowhere to escape.

[Coluber42]

... it comes down to exactly this "what works in one house may not work in another."

I use an rhp that runs the length of my cage with a heat mat and this is not how anyone I heard of runs them. The typical 1/3 cage rhp does not work in this house. I had to run a heat mat both hot and cold before I switched to an rhp and now my temps are flawless ......

I also would like to add maybe the 2-3 degree drop in ambient could be an issue do to the 60 degree basement. If it is a problem maybe adding another heat source would be good idea or an oil filled heater.....

I use an rhp that way too. It keeps the temperature perfect in a glass tank in the living room, which gets down to about 55 degrees in the winter. The other reason to do this is that with such a big difference between the temp in the cage and in the room, you will tend to get cold spots that will get condensation if the heating element isn't evenly spread over the whole thing.

But suffice it to say that a method of heating that works in a 75 degree room will not necessarily work in a 55 degree room. But it is way, way cheaper and more efficient to buy and run an 80 watt rhp than to heat the entire room for the sake of one cage with a 1500 watt space heater.

The big variable that determines whether a particular method works in your house or not is the ambient temperature. It's almost silly to ask heating related questions without providing that information. It would be like asking how much it will cost to heat your house for the winter without mentioning whether you live in Florida or Manitoba.

[cchardwick]

I've been watching videos of some of the top ball python breeders and in their early videos everyone recommends 95F, in fact the PetCo website says to have a hot spot of 95F, probably copying what these big breeders said early on. However, after years of research they have changed their story. Most now say that 95F kills sperm and results in infertile eggs. They now keep their thermostats set at 88F and have wonderful results breeding ball pythons. Don't be fooled by a temp gun and substrate temps, some of my ball pythons like to dig down in the substrate to get closer to the hot spot. Once they figure it out they will always be buried in substrate. I suggest keeping substrate pretty thin above the heat tape, thicker on the cool end. Of course they tend to move the substrate around anyway.

[KMG]

I've been watching videos of some of the top ball python breeders and in their early videos everyone recommends 95F, in fact the PetCo website says to have a hot spot of 95F, probably copying what these big breeders said early on. However, after years of research they have changed their story. Most now say that 95F kills sperm and results in infertile eggs. They now keep their thermostats set at 88F and have wonderful results breeding ball pythons. Don't be fooled by a temp gun and substrate temps, some of my ball pythons like to dig down in the substrate to get closer to the hot spot. Once they figure it out they will always be buried in substrate. I suggest keeping substrate pretty thin above the heat tape, thicker on the cool end. Of course they tend to move the substrate around anyway.

Well we all know how great Petco is with snakes. They need to give it up.

[Jon14]

Well we all know how great Petco is with snakes. They need to give it up.

I completely agree, they seem to know very little about reptiles, especially snakes. Before I adopted my BP, I went there in attempt to gain some info, but all they could do was read the caresheet. They also give horrible advice : "You do not need to regulate this heat mat". I wonder how many people based their knowledge solely on people like this. I'm glad that I have some background knowledge on reptiles and took the time to do a substantial amount of research.

[MandMac]

It would be awful to learn something that may help your snakes. A good owner is not afraid of learning the unknown about their pets, equipment, and techniques, trying to know all they can relating to the hobby.

For example, like how to sex their animals but that requires research too.

We all started at zero. Some choose to learn and become knowledge owners able to help others here while others hover just above zero and do little more than muddy the water.

You've made your choice. Good luck.

KMG, I did look at UTHs some time back. I’m not going to say that I know everything about undertank heating options nor the specifics of how they function or are set up. However, based on what I read when I first acquired my snakes and the information I have seen since, I have determined that they are not an optimal way to heat my enclosures. This is due to the depth of substrate in my snake’s cages, the size of said cages, the type of cage that I have, and the temps that my rooms dip to in winter.

Given this, I currently have no desire to go digging into the bowels of cyberspace in the hopes of finding further information for a product that does not appear to be applicable to my situation. And I really don’t believe that I differ from most other people in this regard. I’ve researched something enough to determine that it will not work for me, then moved on to researching other options and products. To do otherwise seems like a time resource sink, and thus my response to ‘research it’ is ‘thank you, but no thank you’.

Of course, if you care to explain how reducing the primary heat source will not effect any changes to the overall ambient temperature, then, please, enlighten me. But I will ask that you explain the reason for this because I expect heat to radiate out from its source. My laptop meets this expectation even though providing heat is not its intended purpose.

Similarly, if you really feel that the ability to sex a snake is essential to keeping them, then you will need to convince me of the benefit, or need, for this. Because I can’t see it as being important. At this time, if I really wanted to know what sex my guys are, then I will take them to the vet or the local rescue rather than subject them to my amateurish attempts. As I have no desire to breed them, knowing their sex would only serve to satisfy my curiosity. Unless the purpose is to be cognizant of the chance of parthenogenesis? Or does knowing the sex determine some aspect of care of which I am unaware?

For me, researching either of these topics further is akin to knowing normal values for the specific gravity of urine. Pointless, unless you’re in the field of veterinary medicine. Without a useful application for any of the above listed topics, I will continue in my willful ignorance of them while I explore other avenues of knowledge for which I can foresee an application.