Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hoping for a lot of replies...

Can you please tell me what the maximum temp is for the atrox ? My snake room is about 79 at night and i am afraid that this is too hot for the atrox at night... (is it ?)
I hope you can tell me the ideal temps for the night the minimum and maximum temps for the night..
Hope to hear from you soon...

Best regards.. Michiel (the Netherlands)

During certain times of year, they are subjected to nighttime temps at least this warm, however, this is not on a continual calendar basis. I have found that rattlesnakes are very prone to heat stress and not having opportunities to thermal regulate with wide temp variants can cause stress in captive crotalines. We do many temp checks and most of our rattlers, even desert dwellers, spend a portion of the day basking in temps ranging from 88-92 deg F. but then retreat to cooler areas for the remainder of teh day (daytime ranging from 70-75 deg F. with night temps dropping to 68-72 deg F.). When we are cycling certain species for breeding, the winter temps are much lower. This is just my opinion and there may be others who feel that 79 is perfectly acceptable but I am just basing my opinions on observations of natural behavior of rattlesnakes.

Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center
Lake Forest, IL

>>Hoping for a lot of replies...
>>
>>Can you please tell me what the maximum temp is for the atrox ? My snake room is about 79 at night and i am afraid that this is too hot for the atrox at night... (is it ?)
>>I hope you can tell me the ideal temps for the night the minimum and maximum temps for the night..
>>Hope to hear from you soon...
>>
>>Best regards.. Michiel (the Netherlands)
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Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center at Elawa Farm
Lake Forest, IL

Thank you for your reply.. very helpfull.. This gives me a good view on temps in natural habitat.
Of course that makes me wonder how the breeders feel about this.. Any people who can give me some info on the temps in their snake rooms regarding the night temps of atrox ?

Best regards.. Michiel

observations and keeping for 30 years has found my captives at optimum temps at night in the low 80ties but a high 70 is no problem. In wild movement has seen atrox anywhere from cool lower 70ties to high 90ties. Of the recent past trips atrox were at times just about the only specie of snakes seen when the temps was still in the 90ties at midnight. This has been seen on the actual mating rituals as well by me although not leading up to it though. The eastern part of the atrox range is probably somewhat cooler as I have kept atrox from east Texas as well. My winter temps on my captives is only in the middle 60ties most of the time. All of this is with some slight variations of course with night temps as daytime temps. All I can say is that WDBs are one hardy snake when it comes to temps whether low or high. The thing to remember is with high temps a captive needs a place to get away from any direct heat source. Just watch the movement and or non-movement of your captives as well as feeding of any given temperature. I'm sure others will agree that a constant temp is not necessary day-in day-out as the same with night temps. I'm not so much talking of days or weeks but of seasonal temperature changes.
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