Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am setting up a home for a new snake. Normally, you put heating pad/wire on one side of the cage/tank/aquarium to establish a temperature gradient. But what do you do when the room temperature is higher than what is recommended for the snake? I live in California, and often times here it is really warm, even when it's not summer. If my temperature gradient is supposed to be 70-80 degrees, what do I do when the outside (and so room) temperature is 80 ? I don't have air conditioning.

I live in Las Vegas. What I do is use a humid hide. Get a plastic food container with a lid. Cut drill a hole so the snake can get inside, make the hole twice the size of the fattest part of the snake. That way he/she can grow and you can still use it. then put cypress mulch in it. about 3/4th the way up. then fill it with cold water, let it soak for about 5 minutes. drain all the water out. That way if the snake needs to cool he can go inside the hide and be a lot cooler. it works great. (plus will help with shedding.
Good luck

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Tom S
1.1 Flame Lampropeltis getla Floridana
1.0 Hypomelanistic Lampropeltis getula Floridana
0.1 Axanthic Lampropeltis getula Floridana
1.1 High Yellow Lampropeltis getula Floridana
0.1 Hypomelanistic Lampropeltis triangulum hondurensis
1.0 Anerythristic Lampropeltis triangulum hondurensis
1.2 Tangerine Lampropeltis triangulum hondurensis het albino

I use an ON/OFF controller (the ones found in any herp store or online store) to turn all heaters OFF should the ambient temp in the room go above 80.

The heat cable/tape/pad should be on its own controller or dimmer, and that is plugged in to the ON/OFF controller mentioned above.

Some pet stores sell a thin slab of granite to cool chinchillas. The granite tends to stay about 4-5 deg cooler than ambient. Since kingsnakes get their temps from the mass of objects, placing this granite slab in the cage works pretty well when the temps are really warm, especially if you place a bowl of water on the granite too.

I live in So Cal too. Cooling is surely more of the challenge than heating. I don't like to rely on air conditioning, so thermostats are very important. I also have more heat-tolerant snakes now - that really helps too. I love montane kingsnakes but I just could not do them like they should be done - cool background temps for much of the day.
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Antaresia maculosa
Antaresia childreni
"Pythons the size of kingsnakes and with slower metabolisms"

Mark G

I have the same problem but mine get hotter than that even. I use cypress mulch as well as moss. I offer a moist hide as well as glass jars that stand more vertically than horizontally. When it is really hot I spray twice daily. Even when my cages reached mid 90's at times, my snakes did not just hang out in water bowls... I keep a fan blowing from far away pointed at the cages as well as a celing fan to circulate the air.

I have seen no negetive effects in behavior or feeding. I have been experimenting with the moist hide as another poster put here. I took a laybox and and packed it with mulch sprayed it and my mex mex loves it! I just spray the moss inside my other hides so I don't have to change all 12 hides.
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>>I am setting up a home for a new snake. Normally, you put heating pad/wire on one side of the cage/tank/aquarium to establish a temperature gradient. But what do you do when the room temperature is higher than what is recommended for the snake? I live in California, and often times here it is really warm, even when it's not summer. If my temperature gradient is supposed to be 70-80 degrees, what do I do when the outside (and so room) temperature is 80 ? I don't have air conditioning.

The real answer:
You buy a window unit a/c and keep the room cool and provide a hot spot for them to thermal regulate.........
That's the only real way to do it.....as there is no other answer to your question.......
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...

The real answer:
You buy a window unit a/c and keep the room cool and provide a hot spot for them to thermal regulate.........
That's the only real way to do it.....as there is no other answer to your question.......
Well, actually there is an alternative to ac. I use those frozen gel packs wrapped in a towel and put under the hide box when it is really hot. I am off the grid and can't generate enough electricity for an ac, but can freeze gel packs in my propane refrigerator.
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Bob
Pyromaniac AKA Greatballzofire
Keeping cats allows man to cohabitate with tigers. Keeping reptiles allows man to cohabitate with dinosaurs.