Ambient (Cool Side) temperature is too high!

[sjpumpr]

Hi guys, I´ve had my Firemon ball python for almost a week and I am having an increasing problem with my ambient temperature. I live in Madrid and these last days I´ve been facing with 40-41 celcius, which is about 105F. I have started to spray my tank with ice cold water and by leaving all my windows open at night where it gets to low 70´s F, I have managed to get an ambient temperature of about 80-82 early morning, to 86-88 at 2-6pm (when the sun is out and blasting) inside the room the tank is in. My ground temps are fine, cold side floor temperature is in the 80-82 range and hot is at 90-95 range (sometimes getting higher, leading me to unplugging the heat source for some hours as I´m waiting for my thermostat to arrive). Do you guys think it alright for my python to be submitted to these air temps or should I try other ways of cooling down my room?

[JodanOrNoDan]

Anything above 89 is dangerous in my opinion. I have been experimenting with ambient for the past couple months and I am in Florida. Above 89 the animals begin behaving oddly. Anything between 84 and 89 seems ok.

[sjpumpr]

How do you define acting oddly, the only thing he does that intrigues me is that he climbs to the top of the cage where the ice cubes are. The rest of the day he is curled up either in the cool side or in the middle of the tank (no hide in the middle).

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Just keep your snake without a hot spot for now until a hot spot becomes necessary and you can regulate it.

[sjpumpr]

Thanks guys, it was so hard to find information as most people worry about the ambient temp being too cold and hardly anyone was talking about it being too hot.

By the way would a 10F drop at night do any harm? The Mediterranean inland temperature is so annoying.... I get 105 in summer during day time and low 70s at night and the contrast is quite big

[sjpumpr]

I say a 10F drop as at night I get 76-78 whilst during the day I get 84-86 (tank air temp)

[Stewart_Reptiles]

You do not want your temps to drop below 75 and the more stable the temps the better.

[JodanOrNoDan]

How do you define acting oddly, the only thing he does that intrigues me is that he climbs to the top of the cage where the ice cubes are. The rest of the day he is curled up either in the cool side or in the middle of the tank (no hide in the middle).

My experience is that they will become extremely restless then begin coiling with the belly facing more up than down. As soon as I saw the last part I dropped temps and then normal behavior resumed. The only time I have seen a ball take and hold that position is when they are extremely gravid.

[bcr229]

There are a few tricks to preventing wide temperature swings. One is thermal mass - if you have some large rocks or bowls full of water in the tank, they will take longer to heat up and cool off as the air temperature changes.

I'm not sure of the humidity in Madrid but if the air is very dry then you can use a "swamp cooler" to lower the temperature in your room. This doesn't work well if your ambient humidity is high, but I'm guessing that with the night temps dropping into the low 70's your humidity is very low.

Another trick is to take a frozen bottle of ice water and place it in front of a small fan to create a cool breeze across your snake's enclosure during the hottest part of the day.

Shade any south-facing windows - you want the sunlight to be blocked before it hits the window and enters your house. Here in the US we can get stick-on window tinting that blocks a lot of light but still lets you see out, perhaps a similar product is available in Spain. It's similar to the tinting for cars.

[bproffer]

Since the temp here has gotten hot, I am having an issue in my T8 as well. In the winter, I keep my thermostat for the RHP set to 85.4 which generally gives me a 90° hot spot. Cool side is approx 76-78. Now that the house is warmer, my same setting only gives me a hot spot of 87°, but my cool side is now 82-84°. Not very much of a differential. I can boost the set point to get to 90° on the hot side, but then my cool side goes up as well.

Do you recommend I keep my setpoint the same as it is now or turn off my RHP's for the time being. I am in the process of setting up a rack, but that hasn't happened yet. I keep the house at 76° in the summer, but the room the snakes are in stays at 78-80 due to poor cooling.