First of all I know that on a sunny day even at only 50-60 ambient temps, dark rocks (and black snakes) in the sun are much hotter than 80 degrees. I live in the rockies so I am taking into account altitude, the sun is stronger the higher you go. IE ambient temps drop because the air holds less heat but radient heat increases because the light is stronger.



Obviously you are right in some ways. Many people breed gigae with no heat whatsoever. And the snakes wouldn't be black if it wasn't pretty cool where they are from - obviously since you were just there and described the conditions. Thanks for that info by the way.



But where what happens in the wild an what happens in captivity breaks down is in two places. First the amount and type of food, and second the type of heat. A black snake in the sun will warm up to much higher than ambient temps, but in a cage he cant do that. he needs the physical temp.



Also if you are feeding huge amounts (and I don't know of any gigae that will refuse a meal) but not providing warm enough temps, they get fat. Hence the problems with so many fat gigae in captivity. If you keep them cool then you have to feed less. And if you want fast growth you can't just feed them 10 mice a week without providing the temps to metabolize it.

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