Taking sneks outside?

[Bogertophis]

I agree with all the above, plus, I live in the south & with all the ticks, chiggers & other insects, I will NEVER put my snakes on the ground. I do take them out for some sunshine occasionally, temps permitting, but they stay in my hands. A few times I allowed one to chill in a small tree, but my trees are all too big now...most are 50' tall+and that's WAY more than I can climb, lol... Don't forget the invisible dangers too- various pathogens, fungal & other diseases that local reptiles might carry & share.
>>> https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5095536/ As our climate warms, some previously unknown pathogens may become prevalent too.

There's another angle too: one reason that Fish & Game considers reptiles to be un-releasable once in captivity is that there is a danger of them carrying exotic pathogensto the local wildlife that they have no previous exposure to...that can result in unintentionally wiping out native species. We sure don't want that either. Say for example you have a new snake & you have no idea it has a few mites or ticks*, but you take it outside & some of your snake's parasites go wandering off...next thing you know, maybe our native species get decimated if those mites or ticks happen to carry IBD or some other exotic diseases that spread.

*I once took in a large w/c imported ball python that had a countless number of ticks: the inexperienced & disinterested owners had her for a year & thought those were just some of her scales! They broke her hot rock- yes, "one of those!" and they finally decided to re-home her at that point. Had they taken her outside though, they might have inadvertently released some foreign ticks.

If your snake/reptile is a creature of the night or the shady forest, the sun may in fact be too intense & hurt their eyes...so don't over-do it, even when holding them.

Also, remember your own body heat is added to the outside temperatures...be careful not to over-heat your pets in the sun...they can & have died from sun strokes. There was a local guy here that used to walk all around town with his boa on his shoulders. I saw him once, as I drove by, but didn't know him...I was very sad to later find out from a vet tech friend that his snake died from a heat stroke. He enjoyed the attention & he meant well, but he killed his snake not realizing the danger he put her in.