Quote Originally Posted by littleindiangirl

Please reconsider your statement. The heat is still coming from the sun, an overhead source, rather than the ground producing it. Meaning the ambient is just as warm if not warmer than the ground. So the snake does not have to rely on belly heat. The ground does hold heat very well, but these snakes are also mostly nocturnal, and do not come out until dawn or dusk, when the ground is not nearly as warm as the ambient air temp. This explains why these animals dorsal scales would be more sensitive to heat than their ventral scales. Which is why they would not move when they were being burned. It's very easy to understand. We use UTH because they are more efficient and don't sap the humidity that these animals need. And when they are the main source of heat, it is best to keep it from getting out of hand and seriously burning your animal.

This is a funny quote - copying my 'please reconsider your statement' thanks for the chuckle. None the less this quote defies logic and reason. First off - the heat is coming from 2 places - the sun and by virtue of the sun's stored energy in the ground, the ground as well. Besides, how it gets there is of little consequence to the discussion at hand. The BP doesn't care - all it knows is that both are warm. Additionally, any recommendation for using an UTH makes it clear that they should only be used as supplemental heating and that overhead heating must be used as well. Between the two heating sources you have the best representation of what occurs in the wild. As for being nocturnal - your statement is backwards - at night the ground temperature is higher than the ambient temperature - air cools faster then the earth.

As for your comment that the ambient temperature is as warm or wamrer then the ground - have you ever touched the hood of a black car that has been in the sun for awhile? It can be so hot as to cause a burn - clearly ground temperatures can greatly exceed ambient temperatures - and by huge margins - depends where. So this statement of yours has little or no merit.

It's very easy to understand: these animals do not make good pets - and anyone thinking differently is sadly mistaken - captivity for any of these animals is a stressful situation and if you truly care about them you would not support this 'hobby.' They deserve to be in the wild where they belong, not handled daily by a potential predator - or boxed in small tubs. I only say this because all your statements are so self righteous and clearly missing the fundamentals.

Something else that is very easy to understand, they do enjoy some things - that may be the motivation for them to move to a basking spot, seek food, and look for escape. It is naive to say they enjoy nothing - you have no clue. They may or they may not. Also you claim that everyone TRIES to de-stress these animals by good husbandry and habits, yet you clearly miss the point - I agree that you do, and I do this as well, however, if you keep them in enclosures and advocate handling them on a daily basis you are, by the very nature of these acts, increasing their stress. If you were truly interested in striving to minimize their stress you would not be keeping them as pets because clearly they are not suitable as pets or at the very least would not handle them - it only adds stress.

Unfortunately - the literature does not make this clear and now I have one, so I am in a similar boat as you. But we should not fool ourselves into thinking that we are egalitarian because we use good husbandry.

Do you have any documentation on the fact that their dorsal scales are more sensitive to heat than their ventral scales are? I'm very curious about this.