The Rock
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- May 26, 2005
- Messages
- 755
- Reaction score
- 1
boa, Exactly my point most people do tend to wrap Diamonds and most other pythons for that matter in cotton wool, they just havent got the balls to risk what are believed to be risky temperatures in captivity for pythons.
OK how I go about achieving my constant heating and constant cool area is quite simple really. Most of my enclosures are in banks of 3 high. The bottom enclosure has a light fitting coming out from the back of the enclosure so that the bulb itself is only a half an inch to an inch from the bottom of the above enclosure, which provides a heat pad for the above enclosure, it is situated at one end of the enclosure, roughly half way is a division. The snake can go from one side to another and thermo regulate its temperature anytime it wants. For larger enclosures there is always a large cardboard box ie. apple box, that the python can lie on top of and get only a few inches or so away from the bowl. I only use 15 - 40 watt blue bulbs, occasionally 60's when an extreme cold snap hits and the animals are being cooled ie. hot days cold nights, depending on size of the enclosure. By doing this the reptile has the same environment or as close to as possible as it does in the wild. Let's face it if a snake gets cold it seeks out warmth, if a snake gets too warm it seeks out cold. By doing this there is no maintenance, the reptile pretty much looks after itself except for feeding and cleaning. If a heat wave comes thru the cold side is always room temperature so the snake cannot be cooked. If a thermostat misfunctions during a heat wave, or like alot of people large wattage bulbs are used, the reptile will be cooked. 60 watt bulbs are only used occassionally in extreme cold and only for cooling as 15-40 watt bulbs will not burn your animals and sufficient heat can be supplied to the animal to reach a body temperature of well over 30 degrees by only using 40 watt and below. Because the heat is on constantly and only turned off by timers when the snake room reaches above 30-32 degrees the reptile can bask indefinitely to stay at what ever temperature it desires. Let's face it the bigger the temperature gradient we can supply to pythons the better they will be as long as they always have a hot spot.
Rob
OK how I go about achieving my constant heating and constant cool area is quite simple really. Most of my enclosures are in banks of 3 high. The bottom enclosure has a light fitting coming out from the back of the enclosure so that the bulb itself is only a half an inch to an inch from the bottom of the above enclosure, which provides a heat pad for the above enclosure, it is situated at one end of the enclosure, roughly half way is a division. The snake can go from one side to another and thermo regulate its temperature anytime it wants. For larger enclosures there is always a large cardboard box ie. apple box, that the python can lie on top of and get only a few inches or so away from the bowl. I only use 15 - 40 watt blue bulbs, occasionally 60's when an extreme cold snap hits and the animals are being cooled ie. hot days cold nights, depending on size of the enclosure. By doing this the reptile has the same environment or as close to as possible as it does in the wild. Let's face it if a snake gets cold it seeks out warmth, if a snake gets too warm it seeks out cold. By doing this there is no maintenance, the reptile pretty much looks after itself except for feeding and cleaning. If a heat wave comes thru the cold side is always room temperature so the snake cannot be cooked. If a thermostat misfunctions during a heat wave, or like alot of people large wattage bulbs are used, the reptile will be cooked. 60 watt bulbs are only used occassionally in extreme cold and only for cooling as 15-40 watt bulbs will not burn your animals and sufficient heat can be supplied to the animal to reach a body temperature of well over 30 degrees by only using 40 watt and below. Because the heat is on constantly and only turned off by timers when the snake room reaches above 30-32 degrees the reptile can bask indefinitely to stay at what ever temperature it desires. Let's face it the bigger the temperature gradient we can supply to pythons the better they will be as long as they always have a hot spot.
Rob
and what I would like to know is 2 things: 1 is it ok to completely turn off heat at night for em (in a vic winter - it got to 12 last night cos the heat mat got bumped and it's not even winter yet! :?) and then do you reduce the amount of hours heat during the day? And man is this boy still hungry...I'm assuming it's best not to feed him or would the heat in the day be enough for him to digest?
