What about 88F for EVERYTHING!

[cchardwick]

OK, so a good hot spot temp is 88F-89F. And you incubate eggs at 88F-89F. Why not just keep the entire snake room at 88F and crank up the humidity? You could eliminate the belly heats, hot spots, heck you could even get rid of all of your incubators and just put the eggs in a shoe box in the same room. You could even keep your rodents in there too. Seems like it would be much more simplistic. I'm sure in their natural environment they don't really have a 'hotspot' and from what I've heard you really don't need a temperature cycling of ambient or hotspot. Just wondering if anyone has ever tried it? Seems like you could just throw snakes and eggs and rodents anywhere in the room in any type of enclosure, just keep it all at 88F...

[Kaorte]

I have heard of people keeping their reptile room at a steady temp and call it a day. Never heard of anyone incubating like that unless it's maternal. I haven't done either myself.


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[Dumdum333]

hell of an electricity bill

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Not a new concept I have been keeping snake at room temp only (85/88 degrees daytime) 7/8 months out of the year for 7 years since the room naturally gets hot (being under the roof and being cut off from the AC system intentionally helps with that). I run my main snake room at no cost most of the year. Of course it does mean there is a fluctuation of about 5 degrees from day to night which is really perfect.

I prefer to incubate in an incubator however, and that incubator is in the second snake room, (colubrid room) which is much cooler.

As for you rats if you want to produce less 88 will definitely do it, optimal temps for rat production is 70/75. Above 80 production will start to drop and rats start to overheat over 88.

Now you can maintain a room at a stable 88 degrees with a heater I know a few breeders that do and some that have done it for decades, now it is cost effective? Well it depends on the size of the room and what it takes to heat it up to 88 vs the number of racks and what it takes to keep a hot spot. It's all about wattage usage. For some it make sense for other it would not.


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[JodanOrNoDan]

OK, so a good hot spot temp is 88F-89F. And you incubate eggs at 88F-89F. Why not just keep the entire snake room at 88F and crank up the humidity? You could eliminate the belly heats, hot spots, heck you could even get rid of all of your incubators and just put the eggs in a shoe box in the same room. You could even keep your rodents in there too. Seems like it would be much more simplistic. I'm sure in their natural environment they don't really have a 'hotspot' and from what I've heard you really don't need a temperature cycling of ambient or hotspot. Just wondering if anyone has ever tried it? Seems like you could just throw snakes and eggs and rodents anywhere in the room in any type of enclosure, just keep it all at 88F...

In theory what you say will work. I am totally on ambient temps in my snake room. The eggs still go in the incubator though. Even if heat does not cut on that often temperature and humidity fluctuations are easier to control that way. In the room I keep temps between 84 and 88 in general. It is my belief that 89 is pushing it. I have seen the beginnings of heat related stress at 89. I also would not recommend bumping the humidity up in the room as a whole unless you live in a very low humidity environment. High humidity plus little air circulation promotes mold growth in the room itself. The tubs themselves should boost humidity to the proper levels. As to cost, the few months my heat is actually on it is about a $20 increase in my electric bill.

[kxr]

In theory what you say will work. I am totally on ambient temps in my snake room. The eggs still go in the incubator though. Even if heat does not cut on that often temperature and humidity fluctuations are easier to control that way. In the room I keep temps between 84 and 88 in general. It is my belief that 89 is pushing it. I have seen the beginnings of heat related stress at 89. I also would not recommend bumping the humidity up in the room as a whole unless you live in a very low humidity environment. High humidity plus little air circulation promotes mold growth in the room itself. The tubs themselves should boost humidity to the proper levels. As to cost, the few months my heat is actually on it is about a $20 increase in my electric bill.

So you're saying that keeping an ambient of ~86 is all you need? I've been really curious about ambient heat lately. I've been contemplating switching to it in the somewhat near future.

[JodanOrNoDan]

So you're saying that keeping an ambient of ~86 is all you need? I've been really curious about ambient heat lately. I've been contemplating switching to it in the somewhat near future.

86 in my is near ideal. In reality, this time of year I am at 84 at night (thermostat is set at 84) and 85 or 86 during the day. I have a ceiling fan running to circulate the air because i have detected up to a five degree temperature difference between the top and bottom of my racks without it. During the summer I rarely drop below 86 and air conditioner kicks on at 89. Eggs should still be in an incubator in my opinion.

[Trisnake]

Maybe I'm just a n00b but I thought providing a thermal gradient and allowing the animal to naturally thermoregulate (with choice between cool and hot sides) was essential?

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Maybe I'm just a n00b but I thought providing a thermal gradient and allowing the animal to naturally thermoregulate (with choice between cool and hot sides) was essential?

More like it is essential for a new keeper to provide an optimal setup with gradients while they are learning (that's foolproof), keeping your animal with ambient temps alone is more for advance keeper that know how to recognize issues and can troubleshoot them on their own.

Additionally if you have 1 snake keeping the room temp at 85 would make very little sense, it would not be cost effective nor would you enjoy having your living room at 85.

Those are generally used by people with larger collection with a dedicated herp room.

[JodanOrNoDan]

More like it is essential for a new keeper to provide an optimal setup with gradients while they are learning (that's foolproof), keeping your animal with ambient temps alone is more for advance keeper that know how to recognize issues and can troubleshoot them on their own.

Additionally if you have 1 snake keeping the room temp at 85 would make very little sense, it would not be cost effective nor would you enjoy having your living room at 85.

Those are generally used by people with larger collection with a dedicated herp room.

100% this ^^^^^. If I only had a couple animals I would not be on ambient. When I went to ambient I knew my animals well and could tell if they were acting abnormally. I did not move my animals to ambient all at the same time. My isolation rack is still on heat tape. I spent quite a bit of time "adjusting" the room, placing the radiator, the fan, testing with a heat gun. What I did not talk about was redundancy. I have a backup heater set two degrees below the primary on it's own thermostat. Redundancy for cooling has not been completed yet and is a project for this summer.