Again, I am only guessing as to what occurs in your conditions and each of us are different.

I can tell you, I made my own racks and did modify them to not hold heat. Most racks enclose or insulate the box, I had to make racks that allowed a greater temp range. The reason was, I too lived in an area that may not have any winter what so ever.

So if you have a rack system that encloses the box the snakes are in, It makes it very difficult but not impossible to work with. That insulation, Keeps heat in and does not allow for a decent temp range within a box.

In my case, I made racks that only enclosed 1/3 of the box and left the rest to attain room temperature.

Where there is a problem with this type of thinking is about approach and application. Which is clearly why I explain these problems, but do not try to cure them for each different person.

If you know and understand what your trying to get, you can do that in application that fits you. Most here are not doing that, they are again using a recipe type approach that fits someone else.

Most of this is all about language, that is, to comunicate information. In this case, air temps are what keepers try to use, the problem is, air temps are fairly meaningless to snakes, They do not use them, they without question use mass temps. That is the language they understand. So while your thinking in terms of air temps, these animals behave in the use of mass temps.

In this case, infrared heat guns is the proper tool with the proper language.

In this case, if you measure the temp range IN your cages with a temp gun, then it will be in a way that will help you understand your snakes behavior.

I can guarantee you one thing. Mass temps are different then air temps.

ALso no reptile uses the temps they require to attain the temps they acquire. That is, if the snake is wanting to be 82F, it uses temps above 82F to achieve that. In nature, their behavior is based on reaching their goals with conditions that are always above and below what they are needing at the time.

The lower temps are more based on ambient temps, that is, they settle in areas that are at the low temps. That is, shelter in areas that are in that range. And let me guarantee you again, if you check 15 base temp shelters in nature, you will see a range of temps, all cool, but all different, but within a few degrees.

The hot spots in nature without question are normally way above the temps they seek, that way, they can acquire the temps they need and move to cool to manage it. That is their natural behavior.

There is nothing wrong with cool choices in the mid sixties, In that area, a few winter(cool season) feedings is all it takes to maintain energy reserves. Which is the goal of cool choices, TO MAINTAIN ENERGY RESERVES.

As you can imagine, the snakes outside of your south texas house or my house, rarely have mass temps that are that low. As you move south into mex and central america, its nearly impossible to find temps in the low fifties, yet, all you folks think you have to HIBERNATE them too.

Enough for now, good luck and best wishes.

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