Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just wanted to share my science project and get some feed back from the experts.

I have one milk snake in a warmer cage: 110 warm end 78 cool end during the day around 75 at night. The other milk snake is in a cool cage: 73 day and night both ends. I know these are not the appropriate temperatures, but it is only for two weeks, and I am watching the snakes carefully and measuring their body temps with my new temp gun. My hypothesis is that the snake in the warmer cage will be able to digest its meal more efficiently than the snake in the cooler cage. I am going to weigh them twice a day. I am going to feed them weighed pinkies and see what happens with their body weights. I assume the snake in the warmer cage will burn the calories quicker and will weigh less when I weigh it over the course of the days, as compared to the weight of the snake in the cooler cage. I know their are a lot of variables because I am not testing enough specimens and the cage temperatures fluctuate, etc.

Anyways, I just wanted to see what you guys think.
Thanks,
Niko
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1.0 Peruvian red-tail boa (boa constrictor constrictor)
1.0 Argentinian black and white tegu (tupinambis merianae)
2.0 Bearded Dragons (pogona vitticeps)
0.1 White's tree frog (litoria caerulea)
1.1 "assorted" geckoes (???)
1.0 anery Honduran Milksnake (lampropeltis t. hondurensis)
0.1 hypo Honduran Milksnake (l. triangulum hondurensis)

Not just the warmth, but the fact that the snake in the warmer cage has a thermal gradient that allows it to choose it's ideal temperature. If he was just kept in a 90 deg cage, for example...there's a good chance he would reguritate.

The animals know what is best for their bodies.

...hey on a side note...here's another good milk snake experiment idea:

Allow milk snakes to get hungry for a couple weeks, (but allow them water of course). Then create a mock "udder" of some kind, maybe out of baloons (?), fill with milk and show just how much milk snakes LOVE milk.

You could also weigh the snake and give examples of data like the how much an adult milk snake weighs in comparison to pint of milk...etc...since they are supposed to "milk cows dry"

It would be fun to make that old legend look silly through science. But, people who believe in folklore like that are not usually the first to acknowedge silly notions like "science"!

As you look at the data, keep in mind the warmer snake might digest faster and thus diminish in weight faster after a meal, but it may also metabolize the food more successfully and therefore grow more rapidly as a consequence of each meal. So that after six such meals, the warmer snake might have "burned off" each meal more quickly, resulting in a quicker return to a near-pre-meal weight, but after those meals are done--all of them--the warmer snake might have an end weight greater than the snake that ate at cool temps. I'm not saying that's the case, I'm saying it's a possibility, and one that wouldn't surprise me. Of course it's also true the cooler snake probably would not take as many meals as the warmer one if they were offered almost daily, which would skew my end-weight gain hypothesis, but I'm assuming you're going to wait til BOTH are hungry (the cooler one being the pertinent animal in that regard) so BOTH eat at teh same time, every time. Or not? I guess in measuring the appropriately narrow criterion you've designated, that's not necessary after all.
Interesting work. Let us know the results.
peace
terry
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>>I just wanted to share my science project and get some feed back from the experts.
>>
>>I have one milk snake in a warmer cage: 110 warm end 78 cool end during the day around 75 at night. The other milk snake is in a cool cage: 73 day and night both ends. I know these are not the appropriate temperatures, but it is only for two weeks, and I am watching the snakes carefully and measuring their body temps with my new temp gun. My hypothesis is that the snake in the warmer cage will be able to digest its meal more efficiently than the snake in the cooler cage. I am going to weigh them twice a day. I am going to feed them weighed pinkies and see what happens with their body weights. I assume the snake in the warmer cage will burn the calories quicker and will weigh less when I weigh it over the course of the days, as compared to the weight of the snake in the cooler cage. I know their are a lot of variables because I am not testing enough specimens and the cage temperatures fluctuate, etc.
>>
>>Anyways, I just wanted to see what you guys think.
>>Thanks,
>>Niko
>>-----
>>1.0 Peruvian red-tail boa (boa constrictor constrictor)
>>1.0 Argentinian black and white tegu (tupinambis merianae)
>>2.0 Bearded Dragons (pogona vitticeps)
>>0.1 White's tree frog (litoria caerulea)
>>1.1 "assorted" geckoes (???)
>>1.0 anery Honduran Milksnake (lampropeltis t. hondurensis)
>>0.1 hypo Honduran Milksnake (l. triangulum hondurensis)