Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm a little confused. I'm starting to cool my ball pythons. In Kevin McCurley's book, night temps get lowered to mid to low 70s and 80 to 85 during the day.With no hot spot.
In the DVD with the Sutherlands a hot spot is maintained at 95 day and a night drop to 85 with ambient temps 80 day and 75 at night.
Markus Jayne has a hot spot 82 at night and the cool end at 72.
What is the general consensus, hot spot or no, temps?

right now I have it set at hot spot 90 day night drop 82. room temps are 72 at night 82 during the day.

Thanks for any help, Dave

I am new at this too so I feel your frustration. The most important factor I have been able to decipher so far is that there is a significant swing between the daytime high and the night time low. Personally I have found that my snakes did not do that well at 95 anytime of the year. I have currently been running a daytime hot spot of about 86 and a night time hot spot of 75. The ambient temps are about 83 in the day and then drop to about 73 at night. I started putting my males with females the last week and they are each on their third round of girls. Seems to be working for me. Good luck!
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Ryan Sherman
Scottsdale, Arizona

I don't change my temps at all and still have successful breeding. My snakes are constantly kept with belly heat in back of the rack at 90 and the front end of the rack being a bit above room-temp at 76-78. They have these temps 24-7, nothing changes at night. Last year I did 3 pairings and got 3 successful clutches. This year I've only been pairing 2 of my males to start with and both have been breeding like pros. I know others who don't cycle temps or lighting and still have good seasons, others that do, so it's all in what you prefer.
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~* Jen *~

Pink Lady Constrictors

I think you're likely to get a bunch of different responses on this because what works for one person, their animals and their location and set ups - might not work for you and yours. Although you can manipulate certain aspects of your snakes environment - there are natural ones as well that you aren't going to have the ability to control (ie the barometric pressure - or their stages of follicular development).

That being said I have dropped my night temps 5 degrees and that seemed to work well and was fairly easy. I have also dropped my snake room temperatures (by leaving the window open) but leaving the hot spot temps the same and that worked equally as well. BTW - I live in So. Cal. so it's not like I have freezing temps outside the window. If this is the route you want to go and you live in an area where it gets damn cold I would recommend finding another way to lower your ambient temps.

Depending on your set up and your ability to maintain temps - I would mostly recommend that you just don't drop your temps lower than the mid 70s as that really is inviting RIs - I'd also recommend some heat in the 80ish range. They don't need to be turned into frosty pops to illicit a breeding response.

Good luck!
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Tosha
JET Pythons

Insert Silly Quote Here

Has the barometric pressure been shown to have an effect on breeding?
What other aspects of the environment would be beyond our control? The phases of the moon perhaps?
What about EMI from nearby power lines? Or radiation from my color tv?
Telling me you dropped your night temps 5 degrees is useless information. 5 degrees lower than what?

Nothing but more confusion.

Dave

temperature differential. Some believe it's not the temps so much but the change in temps that signals the beginning of breeding.

>>Has the barometric pressure been shown to have an effect on
breeding?

Many animals have an internal barometer. I see no reason why BPs couldn't either.

>>Telling me you dropped your night temps 5 degrees is useless information. 5 degrees lower than what?

Again, this does not really matter (see above).

>>Nothing but more confusion.

Too funny! Welcome to the world of Ball Pythons and learning.
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Jay A. Martin
Jay Martin Reptiles

>>Telling me you dropped your night temps 5 degrees is useless information. 5 degrees lower than what?
>>
>>Dave

Guess what??.......I have the MAJIC answer that you need but I refuse to help someone who.......wait, I must be nice here or this will be deleted (THEY'RE WATCHING!!!!)
Basically, that was not a nice response to Tosha after she took the time to try to help you.
Good Luck Man!!!!!

Tomsey Bitago

That wasn't exactly what I would call a thank you for the info. I think you should be glad that you were lucky enough to get info. Being a jerk like that isn't going to make people want to help you. Just my opinion though.
Ooops sorry, I dont think that info helped you. It just causes more confusion doesn't it?
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1.1 Blonde pastels
1.1 Lemon poss. het ghost pastels
1.1 Het albinos
1.6 Normals
1.0 BRB
0.1 Western Hognose
1.1 Cornsnakes
1.0 Gopher snake

It seems that that there are many ways to do this. Or the snakes just aren't real picky!

This will be our first season breeding and I think I am going to keep the heat on but allow the seasonal changes in the house temps to change my temps. In the summer tub temps are at 92 high 80 low. I let the house go up to 80 while no one is home and 75 at night. I'm in St. Louis and it gets cold in the winter - I can't afford to keep the house 75 degrees all winter. I'll probably have the house temp at 65 or so. I'm going to keep the hotspot so the tubs stay over 75 at the low end.

I'll just watch and monitor the thermostat and adjust as needed.

Jennifer

Thanks for the replies. Not a lot of help, but thank you anyways.

Dave

don't let the variations confuse you. everyone has adjusted their temps to their situation. just drop your temps [cage and heattape]. each 5 degrees for 6-8 weeks. you'll do fine. then pay attention to your animals behavior over the next couple of years and tweak it as nessesary. this isn't rocket science, and nature certainly isn't exact. relax, throw 2 snakes in a box, let them know there is a change of seasons, albeit a slight one, and mother nature will do the rest. it's big fun, good luck, kd

Lot's of good info, just need to read and figure it out.
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Jay A. Martin
Jay Martin Reptiles

I keep my temps as follows.........march through september heat tape 95 degrees 27/7 12 hours light 12 hrs dark

First week of october I slowly lower my night time temps to 82 heat tape and decrease light to 8 hrs light 16 hrs dark . Stays that way til march. You just replicate winter conditions , as the days get shorter you lower temps and turn the lights off earlier........
I really dont think its that critical , They just need to see a cool down!! Good luck to you!

Lots of different strategies will work. Why? Probably because the most important thing an organism does is reproduce, so it's seldom too awfully hard to get that accomplished....
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Brad Chambers

The Avalanche has already started-it is too late for the pebbles to vote....

Well said that. I definitely agree!
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