Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recently went into pick up one of my newbie pastels. While I was at the breeders shop I realized he had no real temp providing thingamabobbers ( heat tape, pads,basking lights,etc.)When I asked him as to why... he responded that he keeps the ambient room temps at 80. In certain rooms he had heaters set up with a fan circulating the heat. Do any of you recommend this? If so.....how would I go about converting a room in my house the same way? Wouldnt I still need to run some flexwatt in my racks in order to provide a much warmer spot then 80? Would like some info if possible. I can spare a room.....and would like a similar setup if at all possible. Just dont know what I need....and how do go about it. I just want to provide the best I can for my kiddos (snakes). Thanks ahead of time.

Sure a room at 80 would be fine, but you still need to supply heat to one end of your enclosure to get the heat up to 89-90 with the humidity 50-60%. I have a room for my BP's and I use a heat generated humidifier. Got it from Wal-Mart in the pharmacy. Small and perfect for one room, only problem is I have to fill it twice a day. Keeps the ambient temp around 78 and the humidity 55-60%.
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I just noticed one of those today at target. I know exactly what your talking about (heater with built in humidifier). I think Im going to try it out. So would that make a differance as to where my thermostat is currently set at right now on my racks? I just have to mess with the temps right?

He may have been using a system very similar to what the Barker's describe in their book.

Essentially, ball pythons don't HAVE to have a hot spot of exactly 90 degrees. Many do just fine at cooler temperatures, especially if the ambient is 80 . If the ambient temperature is 80 , and the snake is digesting a meal in a short, relatively small cage, the snake digesting will actually raise the temperature a few degrees. Depending on the size of the snake, this makes additional heating unnecessary. I believe they said they heated their babies and gravid females, but the other adults/subadults did not receive supplemental heating.
I've noticed this effect myself, especially in summer when I don't provide any additional heating. The snake cages are always noticeably warmer than the room temperature, even when the room temp is 85 degrees! While snakes can't exactly shiver like we do to produce heat, they do have a metabolism, and this is often enough to produce a small amount of heat.

So, if you are going to be heating an entire room for your snakes, that is something to consider.

Also, on the flip side, the breeder keeping his snakes without supplemental heating does not necessarily mean that his snakes are all healthy and thriving with that set up.

~jenny
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"Polysyllabism in no way insures that what you're saying is actually worth being heard." - Blake (an e-friend of mine)

"I have never made but one prayer to god, a very short one: "O lord, make my enemies ridiculous." And he granted it." - Voltaire

I think I may just have to experiment with it a bit. Do you think perhaps I should heat the room at around 80 ambient 55 to 60 humidity..and keep a side of the tubs with the flexwatt still hitting at around 88-90? Whats your opinion on this? Thanks for the info by the way.

Experimenting is never a bad thing! I tinkered with stuff for almost a year before I found what worked for me.

I wouldn't worry about humidity until you have to. I think you'll find that in the tubs, with a small to moderate amount of air holes, the humidity will be just fine. If you have a bout of bad sheds, then try tricks to raise humidity. I live in a dry area and once I switched to using tubs I never had a bad shed again - even during the Santa Ana winds, which drop the humidity down to 15% some days! Thankfully for me, it rarely stays that dry for long, but my snakes don't even notice.

Just for giggles, since the room is getting heated anyway and I am guessing you don't have any serious projects that are do-or-die right now...try not using flexwatt for a week to see what happens. See if the snakes still eat, poop, pass urates, etc. If you have a tempgun, check the temps in the tub the second you open the lid to see what the snakes are living at.
If it turns out not to work, oh well, just plug in the flexwatt and heat to what has worked for you before.
Being at 80 degrees for a while is at worst going to be a little less than ideal, and at best you find that your snakes do just great at cooler temps than you thought.

Let us know how it goes!

~jenny
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"Polysyllabism in no way insures that what you're saying is actually worth being heard." - Blake (an e-friend of mine)

"I have never made but one prayer to god, a very short one: "O lord, make my enemies ridiculous." And he granted it." - Voltaire

In my experience, anything over 86 is really unnecessary and 90 is actually too hot. Balls do their best to escape that kind of heat in the wild. I keep my hot end temps at 85-86 and they ussually gravitate towards the cool end which is 80-82. During breeding season I drop temps to 78-80 and they do fine.
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I eat human infants. They, like everything else, taste like chicken. What?

This is great info. I was wondering why the shop had the ambient at 80 and nothing else heating the tubs. I just always thought that there had to be a hot spot at around 88 to 90. They seem to amaze me more and more. Some days when I think 80 isnt enough and there bodies feel a little cold.......I raise the temps.....only to find them in their water bowls within minutes of doing so.

I have used the ambient room temp method for ten years now and it works fine. 80-84 -. It also help keep the incubator from working to hard. It helps to live in Florida.

Your humidity levels are locked in being in Florida. Im hoping the humidifier heaters will work well in the room. I guess we will soon find out.