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Temp drop question. Plz help

TacticalMorphs

TacticalMorphs

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I have not been worried about it because no one in my collection was big enought to breed. Rigjt now my room stays at about 90 day and night. I have a sunbeam small heater with a built in therm to keep it at the temp. However cooling is right around the corner. I hooked it up to a helix and it blew the fuse instantly. I replaced it and it blew again which tells me its to many watts. How do you guys cool your rooms? Do you leave the temps low and just flux the heat tape or is there some way to rig the heater for a drop with a timer?
 
If your whole room is at 90F, IMO that is too hot. 90 is an ok hotside temp but too hot for the whole room. We heat our room to about 84 with no supplemental heat.
 
FireStorm said:
If your whole room is at 90F, IMO that is too hot. 90 is an ok hotside temp but too hot for the whole room. We heat our room to about 84 with no supplemental heat.
Click to expand...
I agree sort of.
IMO 90 is too hot for the ambient temps on the hot side too.

I like my tubs to be about 77 to 78 cool end, 86ish warm end and 92ish directly on the hot spot.
 
I keep it at 90 but it flux 3 or 4 degrees depening on the outside weather. I also see a big feeding diffrence at 90. They seem to eat more often. I also had a few snakes pass because of RI and i dont want that to ever happen again. I do appriceate you guys suggestions. Hell it probrobly will make cleaning day alot more bearable. Lol
 
This last year, I didn't even cool my animals that bred. Seemed to work just fine for me. Really all depends on your animals though. If they need that temp drop to get to breeding, you gotta do what you gotta do. I also had an RI issue because of the temp drop. almost lost a very dear animal to me because of cooling. Never again for me. I cooled to about 70-72 ambient temp for 2 weeks. When my male came down with RI, heat in the snake room went back up immediately, and that's when I made the decision to never cool again. I would have been heart broken if he had died.
 
Are your snake on heat pads/tape? If not then id say keep ur room around 84 like Shelly, if they do have their own heat then drop the room to 75ish and let the heat pads give the temp range like Jerry.

Its possible the high temps cause them to digest their food faster, which would cause them to be hungrier. But I would definitely lower the temp in the whole room.
 
I have heat tape on every rack. I just freak out when i pick them up.and they feel cold. The snakes that contracted RI and died were both 700+ animals. I just dont want my snakes to die. I have to beg my wife every time to get a new one. Since i lost those she is very skeptical about me getting new ones. Especially after buying a pair of het Black Axanthics. I think i will lower the temp a few. But as far as the original thread goes can anyone share how they rig space heaters to drop for winter.
 
So you have heat tape AND the room set at 90??

in general...I'd say to much heat....as 90 should be around the warmest they need. They do need an area to cool down if they desire it.

As for cooling during breeding...most ball breeders dont do it....but mid-high 70's to lower-mid 80's is good if you desire to.

I'm not big on space heaters....as is drys out my snake room hard core if I use one...and that will create a RI problem long before my temps do
 
I can understand your not wanting to lose more animals after an RI episode. But man, you're fussing way too much with stuff. Keeping ball pythons shouldn't be a source of constant anguish for you. Relax. Breathe!

I keep my snakes at ambient room temp (70-75), and don't heat or cool just for them. Their hot spot gives them their options for thermoregulating, and they tend to move their hide boxes around to just where they feel like they want to be.

I don't cool, because personally I see no merit in cooling ball pythons. Mother nature gives them their cues, none of which require a discernable temp drop, when it's time for them to kick into breeding mode. This time of year, females are ravenous and packing on grams. Even some of my smaller ones. I start pairing around Thanksgiving, with storms that roll through, and most breed readily. All without messing with ambient temps.

My advice to anyone considering cooling is to do it a few seasons without, and then ease into cooling if you want to try it. Be vigilant for RIs, because with lower temps and added stress of breeding, they can definitely pop up and ruin your season.

Just my couple cents.
 
I'm always the other side of the coin in this discussion.
Brendon, you didn't say whether you had supplemental heat, or anything about your cooling process....but I've never had an RI in BPs that I associated with "normal" temp cycling. In years past, I took care of rescues that had been kept with no heat for months (not exposed to extreme temps), and they didn't have RI. I've cycled BPs with boas, and other types of pythons, without a problem.
Temp cycling may not be necessary with BPs, but I think most of us allow natural seasonal decreases...and that has proven to be sufficient. For those that WANT to temp cycle, it can be done safely - BUT, if there are already issues (regardless of your awareness of them) they are likely to manifest during a cooling period.

IMO, humidity issues are of greater concern than the temps traditionally recommended for temp cycling. (70 degrees is below the normal recommendation, but I've let BPs get that cool because I was cycling other animals.) When it comes to temp cycling, there are many opinions on the "right way" - some eliminate the heat entirely; some leave cage heat the same while lowering room temp; some reduce cage heat without lowering room temp; some favor day/night temp variance;, and the list goes on...
 
Keeping your room that high, with or without supplemental cage heat, is a waste of energy...and it sort of sets you up for problems. I don't find it at all surprising that snakes kept that warm would have problems with even a modest drop in temps. High temps keep their metabolism up, so they can combat the bacteria that grow so well in that kind of environment...then, when the temps drop, the bacteria are less affected than the snake.
(There's also the fact that not all respiratory symptoms are indicative of infection - RI is a grossly overused term in this hobby)

Oh, before I forget (again). A Helix is only rated for 500 watts - the lowest setting on the commonly available heaters is 500-600w (typically 600w/1000w/1500w settings), which is why it didn't work for you. I strongly recommend using a decent thermostat to regulate your heater - my preference for that application is a Johnson Controls A419, which is rated for 1500w.
 
hhmoore said:
I'm always the other side of the coin in this discussion.
Brendon, you didn't say whether you had supplemental heat, or anything about your cooling process....but I've never had an RI in BPs that I associated with "normal" temp cycling. In years past, I took care of rescues that had been kept with no heat for months (not exposed to extreme temps), and they didn't have RI. I've cycled BPs with boas, and other types of pythons, without a problem.
Temp cycling may not be necessary with BPs, but I think most of us allow natural seasonal decreases...and that has proven to be sufficient. For those that WANT to temp cycle, it can be done safely - BUT, if there are already issues (regardless of your awareness of them) they are likely to manifest during a cooling period.

IMO, humidity issues are of greater concern than the temps traditionally recommended for temp cycling. (70 degrees is below the normal recommendation, but I've let BPs get that cool because I was cycling other animals.) When it comes to temp cycling, there are many opinions on the "right way" - some eliminate the heat entirely; some leave cage heat the same while lowering room temp; some reduce cage heat without lowering room temp; some favor day/night temp variance;, and the list goes on...
Click to expand...

To control my ambient temps in my room, I use a ceramic space heater hooked up to a ranco regulated between 80-82. That huge 10 degree temp drop is what I associated with the RI, because of the fact that it was the only variable that had changed during that two week period, and my male was not showing any signs previous to that point. In my opinion, a 10 degree drop in temp easily would have caused the issue, just because that is not what my animals were used to. I didn't do the temp drop abruptly either. I did it in two degree incraments every day over the span of the work week. All I know is that $150 in vet bills, and a month and a bit of treatment later, I still have my little buddy, and the knowlege of what not to do anymore. In this case for me, lesson learned. I haven't had a case of RI since.
 
I do know few breeders that always use room temp. And have the belly heat setup if room temp were to drop from power outages, and they ran just heat tape on back up power.

86-88 Room temp is plenty for them, Just set your Heat Tape 1-2oF below room temp. So it dont kick on unless its cold in room.
 
My room is about 72-75 in winter, 76-78 in summer. Hot spots around 87-89. From my experience ball pythons don't need temps over 90. To have a room at 90 degrees is very excessive. Annual temperatures in west Africa are 79 degrees.
 
I keep my room at 80-82 ambient and 90-92 on the hot spot. Breeding season I leave my ambient temp at 80-82, I keep the hot spot at 90-92 in the day and turn it off at night.
 
Temps

I always say, glean what you can from everyone, and then figure out what works for you. I live in South Florida and my snake room has a window covered by blinds. My room stays between 80-86 degrees during the warmer months ( 9 mos of the year). I made the decision after reading about several fires to use 0 supplemental heat in my racks. During the winter, at night only, I had a space heater with a thermostat from a central A/C unit set on 80. I had more clutches this year than ever before, even a much higher percentage of females of size and age go this year than ever. I've never had a respiratory problem with any of my snakes. I've only been breeding 4 seasons, but this is what I've found works for me and my set up.
 
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