Reptile & Amphibian Forums

excerpt from a conversation:

I have noticed that reticulated pythons surface body temp are up to 5 degrees hotter than the floor or ambient temp while digesting a meal ( temp of lump ), all others ( I have tested ) including boas are the same temp as the floor and or ambient, I wonder why that is ? It's definitely related to the digestion process because you get the same results temp wise every time, and when not digesting the temp corresponds to the floor and or ambient temps, yeah I need to know why, but find myself unable to get any real scientific information, other than the fact that I am not blind.

Any one notice this? and can you tell me why? Shunting perhaps ?

Note: There is no hot spot and or overhead heat involved. The source is internal and directly related to reticulatus's digestion process. Have not tested any other types of pythons,

I have however tested several different boas ( Bci, rainbow, dumeril ) and various species of colubrids.

Yeah I have a temp gun and too much time on my hands.

Also if you decide to acquire any temp readings, please be critically careful during the process. I don't want anyone " getting to know" the possible results of a snakes feeding response.
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Thanks,

Frank Roberts
Roberts' Realm Of Reptile Research

I noticed the same thing but I also noticed a temperature increase with Colombian boa babies. I was heating their cages to 90 degrees and found their body temps to be 93-94 after a meal. When a snake has a meal there is somewhere around a 44% increase in their metabolism so perhaps that has something to do with the temperature increase. I've noticed the same thing with burms and retics. I found it really interesting and it changed the way I kept and fed baby boas especially.
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Mark Kennedy

Thanks mark. I was thinking along same lines but, didn't get the same results, in all my snakes. Makes sense, energy does create heat, in essence the same. Just wondering if any one else noticed this, thanks for replying.
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Thanks,

Frank Roberts
Roberts' Realm Of Reptile Research