Good mourning, Please understand, Its not about 82f, thats the problem. ITs a borderline temp thats a tight balance between success and failure.



Its so much easier to have the room(ambient) temps be cooler, and then have a small hot spot. Hot spots for small snakes are best somewhere around 100F at the hottest. And that spot does not have to be very large, something like one small corner. Whats important is, that heat is provided in a way the snake will use it.



Some snakes prefer the hotspot to be under shelter(kings) other snakes like rattlesnakes like a basking spot and a covered hot spot.



Hogs like both. They use hidden hot spots well and love to use a basking lite.



Heres a real thought, when you say 82F for a room temp, that is more or less meaningless. Thats if your saying you have your room set by air temps. The reason is, temps do not work that way. If you have air temps at 82F in the winter, the actual mass temps where the snake is sitting is cooler. In the summer its hotter. Those room air temps can be off as much as 5 or 6 degrees depending on where you live. But they are never accurate.



To actually learn about temps, buy a good( some are not all that accurate) temp gun. Then temp all the temps in your room. They measure mass temps and relate to snakes much much better then air temps. They measure mass temps of the object your pointing at.



THe point is, what your doing is difficult and risky you have to be exactly right. You have to do all the things to make sure temps are right. If you miss, its not good. If your heater or cooling/a/c/thermotstat, malfunctions, its bad. Its all about you. And over time, you will have stuff happen.



If you allow the room to be cool and provide a warm/hot spot. There is a huge range the room can experience and still be fine. And the best part, if the hot spot is above what the snake needs, they simply sit a little farther away.



If your room is too hot, say 85F or more, there is nowhere for the snake to go to maintain the right temps.



Consider, snakes are expert at picking temps, its what they do on a minute by minute basis in nature.



Using this approach, it puts the important decisions on the snake and as mentioned, they are expert to the smallest detail. Best wishes and good luck

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