Red Lights and Ball Python Night Vision?

[KingWheatley]

I recently got a red light lamp from Zoo Med. During a recent feeding at night, I had the lamp on and it was the only source of light in the room.

Cookie missed her first attempt at striking at her mouse, so I am wondering if they do not have good night vision, or if perhaps my girl is blind...? I thought the red light provides a bright light for us, but for the animal typically will appear as a very extremely dim light, which would be enough to see in the dark with for them. (also is 80 degrees Fahrenheit warm enough for a F/T large mouse...???)

[jmcrook]

Sometimes they just have bad aim. Also, heat the mouse to around 100*. It's a mammal, its natural body temp is close you what ours would be. Your snake probably didn't sense an amazing heat signature and could explain the missed strike.


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[Coluber42]

Misses happen. Your BP can probably see better in low light than you can, although there is some question as to whether they can see red (probably not.. although they may be able to see shorter wavelengths than we can). That said, a major way that pythons home in on their prey is by its heat signature, which they "see" with the heat pits. That capability is incredibly sensitive and highly developed. They can nail a prey animal in utter darkness, and BP's that hatch without eyes are still able to eat just fine.
But that's why the prey has to be warmed up to around what its body temperature would be if it were alive. It has to be warmer than the background, or it doesn't "look" like food. And if your hand is nearby and warmer than the prey, or the prey is in between the snake and the much hotter heat lamp, you could be presenting a confusing image.

[KingWheatley]

I've been worried about cooking the rodent and burning the snake. Also isn't 100* a burn point for a snake? Or is that only when they are on something at that heat that will burn them?

[KingWheatley]

... if your hand is nearby and warmer than the prey, or the prey is in between the snake and the much hotter heat lamp, you could be presenting a confusing image.

I feed with tongs to avoid that specific issue

But point taken about the mouse needing to be warmer. But with the light, I just wanted to feed her in "darkness" for her to be less stressed about hunting without blinding myself as well...

[BPGator]

Where is your light located? I've notice with my woma, who has a head wobble, he seems to be confused by multiple heat sources. He knows when prey is in the area, but will sometimes strike at the wrong heat source. A miss is one thing, but my guy will totally strike in the wrong direction, up towards the RHP.

My Pastel has no issues and is very on-target.


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[Sonny1318]

I had similar incidents with my snakes stiking at the lights or other heat sources. I can relate lol.

[BeelzeBall.]

Before you go poking at her eye or whatever, no your snake isn't blind. they miss the strike from time to time, Its not a pitviper.

[Coluber42]

I've been worried about cooking the rodent and burning the snake. Also isn't 100* a burn point for a snake? Or is that only when they are on something at that heat that will burn them?

First of all, wild snakes that eat prey they have just killed do not get burned by the prey's natural body temperature.

Snake flesh burns basically the same as human flesh does. The reason snakes can get burned by unregulated UTH's is two things: one, if their body is insulating the heat source, the temperature can climb gradually until it is much warmer than it would get with nothing on top of it. The other reason is that if the snake sits on a hot surface for a long time and its belly is gradually getting warmer and warmer, it doesn't notice.
Supposedly this occasionally happens with humans too. People get burned by heating pads without realizing or while they're sleeping because your skin doesn't really detect absolute temperatures, it detects the difference between the skin and other objects. If you run one hand under cold water for awhile and the other hand under hot water for awhile and then stick both hands into tepid water, the tepid water will feel cold to one hand and hot to the other hand. In the case of a hot pad that is plugged in, the total amount of heat energy is effectively limitless because as it transfers heat to whatever it's sitting on, the heat pad keeps making more. So your skin gradually heats up and you don't feel the hot pad as being hot, because your skin is hot too. Until you take it off and your skin is all red.

But a rodent that has been swallowed doesn't have very much total heat in it, even if it is over 100°. The heat energy in the body of the rodent gets dissipated and there isn't enough to burn anything.

That said, if you overheat the rodent or try to heat it too quickly, you'll end up cooking the skin which will then split and make a mess. But again, a mouse or rat's skin can handle being 100°; that's in the range of its normal body temperature.

[KingWheatley]

First of all, wild snakes that eat prey they have just killed do not get burned by the prey's natural body temperature.

Snake flesh burns basically the same as human flesh does. The reason snakes can get burned by unregulated UTH's is two things: one, if their body is insulating the heat source, the temperature can climb gradually until it is much warmer than it would get with nothing on top of it. The other reason is that if the snake sits on a hot surface for a long time and its belly is gradually getting warmer and warmer, it doesn't notice.
Supposedly this occasionally happens with humans too. People get burned by heating pads without realizing or while they're sleeping because your skin doesn't really detect absolute temperatures, it detects the difference between the skin and other objects. If you run one hand under cold water for awhile and the other hand under hot water for awhile and then stick both hands into tepid water, the tepid water will feel cold to one hand and hot to the other hand. In the case of a hot pad that is plugged in, the total amount of heat energy is effectively limitless because as it transfers heat to whatever it's sitting on, the heat pad keeps making more. So your skin gradually heats up and you don't feel the hot pad as being hot, because your skin is hot too. Until you take it off and your skin is all red.

But a rodent that has been swallowed doesn't have very much total heat in it, even if it is over 100°. The heat energy in the body of the rodent gets dissipated and there isn't enough to burn anything.

That said, if you overheat the rodent or try to heat it too quickly, you'll end up cooking the skin which will then split and make a mess. But again, a mouse or rat's skin can handle being 100°; that's in the range of its normal body temperature.

Ah! That makes a lot of sense.

Also part of this was not bothering to look up body temperatures for mice. (I thought they were in the 70's, for some reason... so I thought 80° was pushing it... )


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