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I have a male 2004 that was a veracious eater for a few years then slowed down to the point where he skipped meals regularly. I took him off heat to fake a brumation even though I have never brumated my snakes. Once I took him off heat his appetite kicked into high gear (never brumated just turned the heat off). He was being kept in a range between 75 at night and 85 during the day. I never turned the heat back on and its been about a year and now he has the best appetite. Tonight he chased me around the room like I was a rat! Anyone experience this?

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1.1 Pituophis lineaticollis lineaticollis
1.1 Black Pine
1.2 Still Water Hypos
0.0.1 Possibly stillwater x Red Bull
1.2 N. Pinesnake
1.1 Eastern Kings
1.1 Black Milksnake
0.0.1 Plains Garter
1.0 Chow Chow(2003 Papi)
0.1 Cat(Shug

I never use heat on, in, or under my cages.....just ambient room temperatures which always vary. But I do turn the room temps OFF for brumation from Oct to March every year, babies and adults. Room temps during brumation is between 55-65 degrees, sometimes cooler. Temps vary from March to September between 70's at night to mid 80's during the summer time with spikes to high 80's at times.

Kerby...
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Thanks! I moved back to Houston from Chicago so additional heating is not really needed anymore. I just thought it was interesting that his appetite increased significantly when I took him off heat.

>>I never use heat on, in, or under my cages.....just ambient room temperatures which always vary. But I do turn the room temps OFF for brumation from Oct to March every year, babies and adults. Room temps during brumation is between 55-65 degrees, sometimes cooler. Temps vary from March to September between 70's at night to mid 80's during the summer time with spikes to high 80's at times.
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>>Kerby...
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1.1 Pituophis lineaticollis lineaticollis
1.1 Black Pine
1.2 Still Water Hypos
0.1 Possibly stillwater x Red Bull
1.2 N. Pinesnake
1.1 Eastern Kings
1.1 Black Milksnake
0.0.1 Plains Garter
1.0 Chow Chow(2003 Papi)
0.1 Cat(Shug

i don't think that use/disuse of additional heat sources is as important as close monitoring of enclosure temps and available heat gradients.

the easy answer to your question is no, i almost never use heat, though i will turn on a uth sometimes when it gets too cold in the winter. but this is because i live in florida, have an uncooled converted garage under a large shade tree, and check cage temps about twice a week with my laser temp gun. with various basking spots, dry hides, and a moist hide, temperatures stay in the range from low 70s to mid/high 80s. however, i imagine that if i kept them inside the main house where the A/C is running, i would need heat.

but i would know this, because i'd still be checking temps frequently.

Currently 3 of my 4 racks provide belly heat via heat tape. The snakes without heat seem to do just fine. I've noticed that some of the snakes with heat have trouble maintaining their body weight, perhaps because the heat keeps their metabolism in hyperdrive. Next year I'm considering turning off the heat on the adults once egg laying season is over. The ambient room temps get pretty high as it is, and the additional heat may just be overkill.

With me always living in south Florida, and now on the coast of central Florida, I don't use any heat at ALL except in the colder parts of winter when cold-fronts pass through basically. But of course everyone's situation is VERY different depending on where they live.

All my kings don't want to feed only when they are in shed, with the exception of the more northerly Outer Banks kings which tend to go off feed around mid January, but otherwise, they are all voracious, insane eating machines. And as you even mentioned, come shooting out of the cage on occasion to chase me down for anything they can consume.....including my hands or feet if I am not careful too, and almost anything else they see on the floor when they come bolting out regardless of what it is!!..LOL!

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com

>>... they a...come shooting out of the cage on occasion to chase me down for anything they can consume.....including my hands...

do they go after your pinky fingers? I'm seeing a theme here.

LOL!!,..yeah, those too!. I have had to shuffle backwards and side-to-side because they were bolting along the floor wanting to grab my bare feet many times as I was "dancing" around trying to avoid being tagged.

Gotta love those guys for their voracious consuming abilities!..HAHAA!

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com

this is the herp gear doug and I agreed to use in our snakerooms. Joey--you using anything like this too?

Hahahah, I am not, however I think my snake sees the images of the ears and paws around my feet!

>>this is the herp gear doug and I agreed to use in our snakerooms. Joey--you using anything like this too?
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1.1 Pituophis lineaticollis lineaticollis
1.1 Black Pine
1.2 Still Water Hypos
0.1 Possibly stillwater x Red Bull
1.2 N. Pinesnake
1.1 Eastern Kings
1.1 Black Milksnake
0.0.1 Plains Garter
1.0 Chow Chow(2003 Papi)
0.1 Cat(Shug

HAHAHAAA!!....TOO FUNNY!

Those gloves look pretty handy actually, nice and thick..LOL! I think that is what they must picture me as from time to time too.

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com

That was a much-needed laugh........
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Jerry Kruse
www.zonatas.com

And God said, "Let there be zonata subspecies for all to ponder..."

Because of my housing and location ( (small cabin on ridge top in woods on West Slope of the Sierra Nevada Foothills)I get a wide range of ambient temperatures. It is almost always cool at night; mid 60s F is a hot night, mid 50's is the norm in the warm season. In fact, during heat waves I have to give them cool packs. I usually turn the heaters off or way down for height of the summer.
Winter:
I provide heat via UTH's for my snakes that are not brumating. But the ambient air in their tanks can drop as low as the mid 40's F on winter nights, so the snakes have a warm spot under one of their hides. I go around with an infrared gun and get readings for exactly what is the temperature under the warm hide, as I am still feeding some of them and they need that heat for digestion. During the day when I have the fire going they will have ambient temps in the mid 70's in the tanks. The brumating ones are insulated from the daytime temps with quilts over their tubs in my bedroom. If the winter night temps fall into the teens outside even my brumating tubs will need some heat, so I pull back the quilts and let ambient air in.

I keep Arizona mountain kings, Pacific gophers, and Kingsville x Stillwater bulls, all temperate climate species mainly because these snakes can thrive on the temperatures in my neck of the woods. I would love to have a boa or python, but there is no way I could afford to heat it's habitat to Florida type climate all year round! LOL!
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Bob/Chris
Pyromaniac AKA Greatballzofire

It's not that bad. Just slap a heat panel on the roof of the tank! I kept them warm enough in the rockies growing up
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We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion people if you had to be beautiful to get laid.
6.6 African House snakes
3.2 reticulated pythons
.1 corn snake
4.2 Florida Kings
1.2 speckled kings
1.2 ball pythons
0.0.1 Argentine boa

It's not that bad. Just slap a heat panel on the roof of the tank! I kept them warm enough in the rockies growing up
My problem is power consumption, as I am not on the grid and have to be very conservative with wattage.
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Bob/Chris
Pyromaniac AKA Greatballzofire

How do you go gridless?
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We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion people if you had to be beautiful to get laid.
6.6 African House snakes
3.2 reticulated pythons
.1 corn snake
4.2 Florida Kings
1.2 speckled kings
1.2 ball pythons
0.0.1 Argentine boa

How do you go gridless?
Have property too far away from local power lines, then get a generator, deep cycle batteries, and some solar. All this is a big pain in the butt demanding a lot of maintenance, but when the power goes out in town we never know because we generate our own power.
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Bob/Chris
Pyromaniac AKA Greatballzofire

>>... Tonight he chased me around the room like I was a rat! Anyone experience this?

Joey, I stopped wearing those fur halloween costumes years ago for just that reason.
terry

Me too but the imprint is so strong the my Eastern can't get it out of his head!

>>>>... Tonight he chased me around the room like I was a rat! Anyone experience this?
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>>Joey, I stopped wearing those fur halloween costumes years ago for just that reason.
>>terry
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1.1 Pituophis lineaticollis lineaticollis
1.1 Black Pine
1.2 Still Water Hypos
0.1 Possibly stillwater x Red Bull
1.2 N. Pinesnake
1.1 Eastern Kings
1.1 Black Milksnake
0.0.1 Plains Garter
1.0 Chow Chow(2003 Papi)
0.1 Cat(Shug

I control ambient room temps with a convection low profile heater, and have had great results. So, like Kerby, I use ambient temps. I have been able to identify vastly different temps when comparing the top, middle, and bottom part of the room, so I place snakes in areas of the room according to types/species. I have mostly pits, which do better at lower temps, but all of my kings are in the highest part of the room, and their temps are probably around 79-80 during the day, with a nightime drop to 75-ish or so.

Now with this being said, I think that colubrids for the most part, do not need extreme heat, like maybe what was once thought about in the past, with using big heat lamps or heat rocks, or whatever. I do think that keeping them on heat though is fine, and keeping them on heat, and having a gradient, is a great idea as well. I think that racks that are using heattape are wonderful, but I have yet purchased any, as the prices are extremely high to me.

With that, I have found though, that ambient temps seem to work very well for my collection, especially since I live in the South. For those up North, ambient temps may not be the best way to go, as it gets colder than heck.

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Genesis 1:1

I turned off the heat tape back in October...I've put them in a hibernator now. During the season I have tape triggered to keep the hot end around the mid 80s (sometimes it stays idle with our weather).
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We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion people if you had to be beautiful to get laid.
6.6 African House snakes
3.2 reticulated pythons
.1 corn snake
4.2 Florida Kings
1.2 speckled kings
1.2 ball pythons
0.0.1 Argentine boa

I've always lived in the south. First New Orleans then south Florida and now Central Florida. Well I did live in Virginia for a while but only a couple years, and only had a Honduran milk during that time. I just keep the snakes in a room with the AC vents blocked off, that's it.
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King Snakes! Who can make a better mouse trap?
J Sierra

>>I've always lived in the south. First New Orleans then south Florida and now Central Florida. Well I did live in Virginia for a while but only a couple years, and only had a Honduran milk during that time. I just keep the snakes in a room with the AC vents blocked off, that's it.
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>>King Snakes! Who can make a better mouse trap?
>> J Sierra

It does depend on where you live.....
If I did that Jorge....I would have dead snakes......I had a bad experience where the a/c decided to block itself off.......

I keep my snake room cool (70F) and provide a hot spot (90F)......

If I just turned off my a/c in the snake room it would reach 100F plus in the Summer......South Texas Summers are brutal, even more so than Louisiana's or Florida's........

I have to have the a/c vent going in the winter to keep the temps down to 70F most of the time.........
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...
www.coastalbendcaptivebreeding.com

I'm like you John....run the AC about 8 months of the year. It also helps regulate the humidity.
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Greg Jackson

>>I'm like you John....run the AC about 8 months of the year. It also helps regulate the humidity.
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>>Greg Jackson

Hey John, and Greg, I partially open the AC vents also during the hottest of months. But I never use any heat.
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King Snakes! Who can make a better mouse trap?
J Sierra

>>>>I'm like you John....run the AC about 8 months of the year. It also helps regulate the humidity.
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>>>>Greg Jackson
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>>Hey John, and Greg, I partially open the AC vents also during the hottest of months. But I never use any heat.

Yeah, but most folks do that with the common kings......LOL

A 9 year old can keep them alive and get them to breed......

J/K......
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...
www.coastalbendcaptivebreeding.com

No your not.
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King Snakes! Who can make a better mouse trap?
J Sierra

>>No your not.
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>>King Snakes! Who can make a better mouse trap?
>> J Sierra
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...
www.coastalbendcaptivebreeding.com