Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Kingsnake heights is finally up and running - I just have one more level to add for the newest baby who will move into it in about 6 months.

Vision cages are great, Scott(the genius) is a good friend of mine(yes, I like people who are entertaining)

There are a small problem I see with your setup. The problem is, heat raises, the heat from the bottom cage will indeed heat the cage on top of it, and that one will heat the one on top of it. The top cage will be far hotter then the bottom.

I have asked Scott(many years ago) to cast insulated spacers that "fit" between the cages. Or you can simply go to home depot and put some foam board between them. Or you can adjust the wattage, lower on the top, hotter on the bottom. You could put thermostats on each cage too(expensive) Then you may find that the top or the top two cages may not need litebulbs.

The reality is, it will work the way you have it, then on a hot day, boom, its all messed up. Colubrids do indeed work better with a range of temps. But they do not like heat all the time. A normal room temp, with a small heat source, works oh so well. Lites work fine as do heat strips.

Good luck and what a fine setup. Cheers

I agree Frank, and also believe this is why a proven female Brooks did not produce for me last year. I actually had no heat in her cage once the Texas heat was in full swing and though I tried I could not drop the temps due to the height her cage sat at. This year I have moved the stack of cages closer to my AC unit and added some more holes for ventilation and have another idea I intend to try a little later in the year. I may put some insulation in between the cages as you suggested too. I brought my snakes back into the snake room a little early this season as I have a lot of fine tuning to do to attempt to know how different corners of my room, and also how the temps differ from cages near the floor as to cages near the ceiling. This is something many of us probably do not think about while our collections are growing since we have seen success while working with a few pairs. After you have 50 pairs and 100 cages all with a heat source....things need to be monitored to make sure each animal is as comfortable as you hope, Tom Stevens

Posted by: Nokturnel Tom at Mon Mar 6 14:07:11 2006 [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ]

I agree Frank, and also believe this is why a proven female Brooks did not produce for me last year. I actually had no heat in her cage once the Texas heat was in full swing and though I tried I could not drop the temps due to the height her cage sat at. This year I have moved the stack of cages closer to my AC unit and added some more holes for ventilation and have another idea I intend to try a little later in the year. I may put some insulation in between the cages as you suggested too. I brought my snakes back into the snake room a little early this season as I have a lot of fine tuning to do to attempt to know how different corners of my room, and also how the temps differ from cages near the floor as to cages near the ceiling. This is something many of us probably do not think about while our collections are growing since we have seen success while working with a few pairs. After you have 50 pairs and 100 cages all with a heat source....things need to be monitored to make sure each animal is as comfortable as you hope, Tom Stevens

At what temps do you like to keep your kings during the active non brumation period? I ask because last summer we had a big heat wave. I had 3 choices bring them in a room with AC (65 degrees would have used heat tape on one side),Put them in basement mid 70s but would have used heat pape only during day or leave them upstairs in mid 86 air temp degree.
I opted to leave them upstairs they all did fine but they seemed a bit restless at 86 with no cooler side.
This year think going to bring them downstairs. Not sure.

Last year I had more people than ever before come to my snake room, and just about every person was baffled I had the room so cold. Keep in mind I am in Texas and I built a room inside my garage for my snakes....it is insulated but it is hardly perfect...and I must constantly check temps in cages. The term most people throw around is "hot spot". After realizing back when I had less snakes kept inside my house, my cages were basically hot with the hot spot hotter. Now I try to keep my room at a maximum of 70, and actually really try to keep the ambient temp below 70 but that is easier said than done. I have seen snakes that just ate stay away from the hot side, and seem to want to be cooler when given the choice of sitting at about 82 or 70. This even goes for hatchling Corns...who are not as tough as Kings as far as big meals, proper temps and regurge. I often see they chose to be hot when they have a full belly but this is not always the case. From the time I warm them to the time I cool them I try and keep the same temps year round. I will also throw in a few extra hot days and a few extra cold days as regulated by me to sort of watch to see how the snakes react too it. So my answer is I'd try the coldest room for them if they have a good heat source, and you can let the snakes tell you if they prefer it or not by the way they act. I wish I could get my snake room down to 60, and I'd shoot for a hot spot of 85. If you have a bunch of snakes you may want to try and put a few in each of the temps you can offer them and get an idea of which temp seems to suit them best. Tom Stevens

Living in Santa Cruz is kinda nice. I don't have heating or air conditioning in my place, because winters here are cool but not cold, and summers are cooler along the central CA coast. On cold winter nights, my room temp may drop as low as the high 50's, and the warm side of the snake's cage will be in the 70's. During hotter summer afternoons, my room will sometimes reach the high 80's but only for a few hours at a time - it is always cooler at night and in the morning. I leave the heat on my snakes 24/7 and let them thermoregulate as they please. I try to aim for a warm side temp of 85, but on hot days it climbs well above that. I don't brumate my snakes since I'm not breeding them (yet). I also open the window every day year round. Thus my snakes get some variability in weather and strong seasonal cues without hitting the extreme temps too often.
-----
- Andy
ToothAndScale.com - herp and underwater photography

1.0 Sandfire x Yellow Bearded Dragon
0.1 Albino Black Ratsnake
0.1 California Mountain Kingsnake

Thank you both for the help. I am going to bring them downstairs this year as last year it was a mistake to have them upstairs with air temps of 86 or so (they are in den no AC in den just fan). They did fine last year but just had a gut feeling to warm.
I am going to bring them in basement this year which gets good light from outside window so its not dark anyway and use a heat pad on 1/4 the tank only as the ambient temp gets no hotter than mid 70s.

Thanks for the word FR. I have been monitoring the cages both with and without the heating pads on. I live in central TX so I do have to watch out for the heat issues. Since it started really warming up here about a week ago I pretty much have had to take away the heating pads as it was just to hot under the spot light. I seem to be getting pretty consistent temps of 77 - 82 degrees near the front of the cage with the spot under the light being about 90. There was not too much fluctuation from the bottom to the top cage - about 3 degrees (there are some pretty sizeable vents in the back of the cages). Though I am likely going to begin drilling some small holes on the sides of all of the cages to provide more crossflow ventilation. That should solve any of the stuffiness issues. I am just excited about these as I managed to acquire them for free (lights needed to be fixed) and it is a whole lot better than having a bunch of 20 gal tanks everywhere. And since I don't really plan to have more than four at a time - the rack system just doesn't suit my needs.

Again, thanks for the info.