New keeper and ambient temprature

[Hugsplox]

Hello everyone!

Long time reader but first time poster here. Decided after seeing how friendly and helpful this community is as opposed to others, looking at you Reddit, that I would register and stay awhile. I'm really hoping that some of you can help me out on the topic of ambient temperatures. As I'm sure has been said many times before, 5 different websites and 5 different care guides give you 5 different answers. Hopefully someone can help clarify this for me, and I apologize if this topic has been beat to death, so to speak.

I have my new male in a 40 gallon breeder, front opening Zilla enclosure. I have 3-5 inches of Zoomed forest floor substrate (deeper in some places because I chose to bury the hides to make it a tad more realistic), plenty of clutter, fake plants, logs, cork bark etc etc. I'm using a UTH controlled by a Jump Start thermostat, probe is sandwiched between the UTH and the glass on the outside of the enclosure, and is set to 95 which has kept the warm hide at a nice 90-91 (measured with an infrared temp gun). Right now my ambient temps are right around 75 and increase during the day as it warms up, but never higher than say 78. my Humidity stays between 60-70% when not using any overhead heat. I have a 60 watt CHE that I can turn on, which bumps the ambient temp to around 84-85 but then drops my humidity below 50% later in the day. I have over half the top covered in aluminum foil, and the plastic covers that Zilla includes with this enclosure to hold in humidity, but as you all know, tanks aren't the best at retaining moisture.

My issue is, again going back to 5 sites 5 answers, I've read that below 70 is a no go, below 75 is a no go, below 80 is a no go. I've read that I shouldn't worry about the ambient temp as long as the hot spot is where it should be, I've read that I need the hot spot and the ambient temp just so or the snake will die, I mean... there is a lot of back and forth about this stuff. Can someone help me out here? I even browsed the forums on Morph Market and the breeders are going back and forth disagreeing about this. I guess I just want to not stress about this, but be sure that my animal is getting the best care I can provide.

[ckuhn003]

Hello everyone!

Long time reader but first time poster here. Decided after seeing how friendly and helpful this community is as opposed to others, looking at you Reddit, that I would register and stay awhile. I'm really hoping that some of you can help me out on the topic of ambient temperatures. As I'm sure has been said many times before, 5 different websites and 5 different care guides give you 5 different answers. Hopefully someone can help clarify this for me, and I apologize if this topic has been beat to death, so to speak.

I have my new male in a 40 gallon breeder, front opening Zilla enclosure. I have 3-5 inches of Zoomed forest floor substrate (deeper in some places because I chose to bury the hides to make it a tad more realistic), plenty of clutter, fake plants, logs, cork bark etc etc. I'm using a UTH controlled by a Jump Start thermostat, probe is sandwiched between the UTH and the glass on the outside of the enclosure, and is set to 95 which has kept the warm hide at a nice 90-91 (measured with an infrared temp gun). Right now my ambient temps are right around 75 and increase during the day as it warms up, but never higher than say 78. my Humidity stays between 60-70% when not using any overhead heat. I have a 60 watt CHE that I can turn on, which bumps the ambient temp to around 84-85 but then drops my humidity below 50% later in the day. I have over half the top covered in aluminum foil, and the plastic covers that Zilla includes with this enclosure to hold in humidity, but as you all know, tanks aren't the best at retaining moisture.
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My issue is, again going back to 5 sites 5 answers, I've read that below 70 is a no go, below 75 is a no go, below 80 is a no go. I've read that I shouldn't worry about the ambient temp as long as the hot spot is where it should be, I've read that I need the hot spot and the ambient temp just so or the snake will die, I mean... there is a lot of back and forth about this stuff. Can someone help me out here? I even browsed the forums on Morph Market and the breeders are going back and forth disagreeing about this. I guess I just want to not stress about this, but be sure that my animal is getting the best care I can provide.

It sounds like you've done a lot of research and it shows in your setup description. I agree, the more you read, the more answers you're going to get on setup requirements. I 'think' the optimal ambient temps are around 80 but I think anything over 75 should be sufficient. The more important numbers to focus on would be belly heat (especially since BPs spend most of their time in their hides) and humidity for good sheds. It sounds to me that your well on your way.

[Hugsplox]

It sounds like you've done a lot of research and it shows in your setup description. I agree, the more you read, the more answers you're going to get on setup requirements. I 'think' the optimal ambient temps are around 80 but I think anything over 75 should be sufficient. The more important numbers to focus on would be belly heat (especially since BPs spend most of their time in their hides) and humidity for good sheds. It sounds to me that your well on your way.

Thanks a lot for your response, and yea I think I obsessed a little on the research prior to bringing a BP home. I keep other reptiles as well but this was my first snake so I wanted to do a little extra. I think I have the belly heat down, I ran the tank for almost a month before bringing my snake home so I could make sure the thermostat was doing what it was supposed to do. His warm hide measured at the glass is 90-91ish never hotter than 92 or cooler than 90. I felt pretty comfortable with my set up until I stumbled onto a lengthy argument on Reddit about ambient temps and then I kinda of went down the rabbit hole of "am I doing this right?" which eventually led me here.

I see you're in Georgia too, so you know our weather is... subject to change lol. So far I haven't seen any issues especially considering I have a bearded dragon with her big heat lamp on the other side of the room, so my office stays right around 75 all day, but at night It can get down to 72-73. I don't believe (believe being the strong word) that the snake enclosure gets that low though, but I may be wrong.

[ckuhn003]

Thanks a lot for your response, and yea I think I obsessed a little on the research prior to bringing a BP home. I keep other reptiles as well but this was my first snake so I wanted to do a little extra. I think I have the belly heat down, I ran the tank for almost a month before bringing my snake home so I could make sure the thermostat was doing what it was supposed to do. His warm hide measured at the glass is 90-91ish never hotter than 92 or cooler than 90. I felt pretty comfortable with my set up until I stumbled onto a lengthy argument on Reddit about ambient temps and then I kinda of went down the rabbit hole of "am I doing this right?" which eventually led me here.

I see you're in Georgia too, so you know our weather is... subject to change lol. So far I haven't seen any issues especially considering I have a bearded dragon with her big heat lamp on the other side of the room, so my office stays right around 75 all day, but at night It can get down to 72-73. I don't believe (believe being the strong word) that the snake enclosure gets that low though, but I may be wrong.

Your preparation sounds a lot like my experiences when I got my 1st Ball Python. I had my setup running for about a month before I even pulled the trigger on the snake. I wanted to make sure I had everything dialed in to give my snake the best chance of survival and provide optimal health. You'll find out that these creatures are pretty resilient. I will say that I got a little worried two years ago with all that snow when I saw my ambients dip down below 75. I was wrapping the enclosure in blankets. He survived just fine during that winter.

What part of Georgia? I'm in Cobb County.

[Hugsplox]

Your preparation sounds a lot like my experiences when I got my 1st Ball Python. I had my setup running for about a month before I even pulled the trigger on the snake. I wanted to make sure I had everything dialed in to give my snake the best chance of survival and provide optimal health. You'll find out that these creatures are pretty resilient. I will say that I got a little worried two years ago with all that snow when I saw my ambients dip down below 75. I was wrapping the enclosure in blankets. He survived just fine during that winter.

What part of Georgia? I'm in Cobb County.

I'm down in Houston County. Yea I'm not super concerned with it getting too cold in this room, but again with the back and forth over ambient temps I was sitting here like, do I need to have this CHE running 24-7? Like if a bearded dragon is cool with nighttime temps dropping as low as 72, can this BP from a cooler area not be okay with it? It was all super confusing. I'm running the CHE now just to kind of see what my humidity does during the day, and while the ambient temp is up in the 80s the humidity has gone down to 58% and still dropping in an hour or so.

[ckuhn003]

I'm down in Houston County. Yea I'm not super concerned with it getting too cold in this room, but again with the back and forth over ambient temps I was sitting here like, do I need to have this CHE running 24-7? Like if a bearded dragon is cool with nighttime temps dropping as low as 72, can this BP from a cooler area not be okay with it? It was all super confusing. I'm running the CHE now just to kind of see what my humidity does during the day, and while the ambient temp is up in the 80s the humidity has gone down to 58% and still dropping in an hour or so.

I've never used a CHE so hard for me to comment. I would think having a CHE running 24/7 would zap the humidity. Do you have it on a thermostat?? I use a RHP which creates a nice ambient temperature as well as a surface temp.

[Hugsplox]

I've never used a CHE so hard for me to comment. I would think having a CHE running 24/7 would zap the humidity. Do you have it on a thermostat?? I use a RHP which creates a nice ambient temperature as well as a surface temp.

I don't have this CHE on a thermostat because of the low wattage and the size of the enclosure. That was part of my month long test before I put a snake in there was how how it would get, and it doesn't heat anything over 85, and that's at the closest spot the BP could get to. And you're absolutely correct, even at the low wattage and, in my opinion, not high temps, it still sucks the humidity out of the tank. I think the lowest I've seen it drop on the hot side is 48%. Which I guess 2% below the recommended isn't terrible but, I hate to have the BP get a RI because I was more focused on ambient temps than humidity, especially if the belly heat is fine.

I think I'm just gonna splurge on a PVC enclosure with RHP at some point, I just don't know enough about them to really put together a set up.

[ckuhn003]

I think I'm just gonna splurge on a PVC enclosure with RHP at some point, I just don't know enough about them to really put together a set up.

They are extremely easy to setup and take a lot of the stress away which comes w/ a glass enclosure (i.e. humidity, ambients). Just keep in mind, while AP is awesome and worth it, they take a long time to ship.

[Hugsplox]

They are extremely easy to setup and take a lot of the stress away which comes w/ a glass enclosure (i.e. humidity, ambients). Just keep in mind, while AP is awesome and worth it, they take a long time to ship.

Yea I saw their wait times were a little long. I just recently got a Zen Habitats 4x2x2 for my bearded dragon, and it took well over a month before it ever shipped so I'm familiar. In the meantime though, in your experience, would you say 75+ is a good ambient or should I be cranking those temps up and just misting a few times a day to keep the humidity up to compensate for the CHE?

[ckuhn003]

Yea I saw their wait times were a little long. I just recently got a Zen Habitats 4x2x2 for my bearded dragon, and it took well over a month before it ever shipped so I'm familiar. In the meantime though, in your experience, would you say 75+ is a good ambient or should I be cranking those temps up and just misting a few times a day to keep the humidity up to compensate for the CHE?

Personally, I think 75 plus is fine. Before my AP enclosure, my ambients were in the mid 70s and it wasn't a problem.