Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recently bought a yellow rat snake, and an albino black rat snake. I'm completely new to rat snakes, and I can't find too much info on the net...

What are the right temps for these guys? and how much/if any humidity do they need?

I have UTH for both of them, and they both have a nice sized water dish, will this be enough?

Thanks!

The water bowls will work fine. Rat snakes are hardy captives in general. They need an occasional misting pre-shed, but otherwise room humidity is fine. As for temps. range I use is 75-82. I have seen some recommendations for a slightly lower range, and really anything over 72 is pretty good. Of course they need a hide, and if they are nippy, which rat snakes can be, handling with gloves whould calm them down. Oh they are like most snakes, but maybe mroe so, prone to a strong feeding reaction so don't be shocked if you get nipped while offering food. They can be real eating machines.

Thanks for the reply!

Those temps are about exactly the ones I've been keeping them at - they both seem to be doing just fine. I figured that was a good range, but I've heard many different people give ranges all over the scale, so I wanted to be sure.

Luckily neither of my rats are nippy at all - they're very tame!

Well, one thing I've noticed about my black rats is they head for the water dish if the temperature starts getting close to 90 degress Fahrenheit/30 celsius. Below 70 fahrenheit, they want to hide. I'm from Tennessee,originally, and anyone from there can tell you that the humidity is relativly high, between 70% to sometimes 100% w/no rain in sight. I usually keep the humidity in my snake room around 60% to 70%. That's my two cents, but I'll leave it up to the snake experts on here to make corrections.
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Gregg
The Corn Snake Pit

Thanks for the reply, it's a lot of help!