View Full Version : Do snakes associate warmth with light?
Do snakes associate warmth with light? i'm using a belly heat for heating and a normal light for lighting. Should i place the light over the area of belly heat or snakes do not associate them together?
dave himself
07-02-17, 02:47 AM
I can only go on personal experience here but I would say no. I have no lights in my vivs at the moment only natural light, and I've noticed when all mine are fed they go straight to the hot end of the vivs.
dannybgoode
07-02-17, 03:12 AM
I agree with Dave however all my vivs have uv lighting and as a matter of course I put the uv light at the warm end as in nature its likely the uvi will be highest in the brightest warmest basking spots.
I then have ambient lighting throughout the length of the vivs for plant growth.
Other way around, they associate light with warmth
Other way around, they associate light with warmth
You are not being serious in your answers and contributions. This is a forum for serious discussions
dannybgoode
07-02-17, 11:32 AM
You are not being serious in your answers and contributions. This is a forum for serious discussions
Why is he not being serious? I'd tend to agree with him.
Note TRD is one in the most 'advanced ' and knowledgeable keepers I know so why you think he'd be joking is beyond me.
jjhill001
07-02-17, 11:44 AM
Other way around, they associate light with warmth
Yup, this is also what I tend to think as well.
jjhill001
07-02-17, 11:46 AM
You are not being serious in your answers and contributions. This is a forum for serious discussions
Lol, calm down dude.
Yup, this is also what I tend to think as well.
Is this the issue here? Light with warmth or warmth with light? Which came first, the egg or the chicken? I bet if TRD said either one you would have agreed with him. Im new here to this forum. I really profited from the answers of members like "Roman", "dannybgoode", "dave himself", "bigsnakegirl785" and several others to my questions. I just noticed that the answers of "TRD" to my topics were away from the topics and not really helpful. I don,t want to sound rude to anybody. I just had to explain my answer since 2 members decided to support the answer of TRD.
Scubadiver59
07-02-17, 01:23 PM
Have you ever heard the phrase, "playing the devil's advocate"?
If,not, look it up.
Is this the issue here? Light with warmth or warmth with light? Which came first, the egg or the chicken? I bet if TRD said either one you would have agreed with him. Im new here to this forum. I really profited from the answers of members like "Roman", "dannybgoode", "dave himself", "bigsnakegirl785" and several others to my questions. I just noticed that the answers of "TRD" to my topics were away from the topics and not really helpful. I don,t want to sound rude to anybody. I just had to explain my answer since 2 members decided to support the answer of TRD.
dannybgoode
07-02-17, 01:24 PM
Sometimes questions involve answers that appear unrelated or describe a point that is relevant but not as a direct answer to the question.
And no I wouldn't just agree with someone for the sake of it - I happen to know TRD's keeping methods and his observations, particularly when it comes to heating and lighting. Note there are some members on here who are on other forums and groups so my knowledge of their experience etc isn't just from this forum.
In this particular instance someone did directly answer your question and you chose to interpret that as a quip - incorrectly on this occasion in my opinion.
I can be more elaborate, but for a reptile light = warmth, not warmth = light. Its very simple. What do you do when you're warm? You move into shadow. Why you think this is different for reptiles? We all inhabit the same planet, the same sun above us. Sunrays = light, sunrays = heat.
@Pedroo I thought that your reaction to TRD’s replay was not appropriate, even if TRD didn’t explain how he came to his replay. As I already mentioned in my other reply to your question about plants in enclosures there are many topics covered not only once but several times before. If you do a little research you will find several threads about light, heat / heating and the relation between them. So it is often tedious to write more or less the same answer again and again, especially to more or less basic questions. Don’t get me wrong, most of us are always willing to help, but there are sometimes situations where the answer for a new question is in another thread just two posts before…
To answer your question. Where do reptiles get their warmth in the wild? They will search for a spot in bright daylight, preferable on a rock or a branch if they want to get their preferred body temperature. I don’t doubt Dave’s observation that his snakes will go for the hot side of their terrarium even if it is (relative) dark, because they can feel the warmth and they know their surrounding, so they learned where the hottest place is, even if it is not brightly lit.
In general I suppose that every reptile would look for the brightest spot in it’s environment in search for warmth. That’s why I use only lamps as heat source (a heat mat would be pretty useless for most of my snakes anyway, because most of them are arboreal).
Roman
P.S. TRD has beaten me with his replay…
Thank you all and im sorry if i was rude. After intensive reading and searching as well asking, i have decided to do without light in the enclosures for all 4 snakes that i have. The natural light that comes through the window should be enough. And i will use only one type of live plants "Epipremnum aureum" which can do well with little light.
jjhill001
07-11-17, 03:04 PM
Thank you all and im sorry if i was rude. After intensive reading and searching as well asking, i have decided to do without light in the enclosures for all 4 snakes that i have. The natural light that comes through the window should be enough. And i will use only one type of live plants "Epipremnum aureum" which can do well with little light.
Oh, they don't NEED anything but ambient light. I only know of a few species that reportedly seem to be healthier with UVB lighting and spot lamps that's mostly Nerodia, Thamnophis and the Smooth and Rough Green snakes you see over here in America.
The way the question was framed made me think that you were just wondering where snakes recognized heat from. I think they'll recognize other heat simply because they'll feel its warmer, but they'll know for sure to look for heat from above and light.
dannybgoode
07-11-17, 03:23 PM
Of course I come from a different school of thinking and would say whilst they do not *need* full spectrum lighting and uv they do benefit from it. All my snakes have uv and if you look at three photos in the 'my collection' post you'll see many of them basking under it - including the C hortulanus - very much a nocturnal animal.
jjhill001
07-11-17, 05:29 PM
Of course I come from a different school of thinking and would say whilst they do not *need* full spectrum lighting and uv they do benefit from it. All my snakes have uv and if you look at three photos in the 'my collection' post you'll see many of them basking under it - including the C hortulanus - very much a nocturnal animal.
Isn't the Hortulanus an amazon tree boa? I mean, its not like it's gonna crawl in a hole or something.
Jim Smith
07-11-17, 05:52 PM
My input is not needed here, but I felt the need to weigh in anyway. I agree with the statement that snakes are more likely to associate light with warmth than the other way around. One example that I had tends to support this idea. I had one of my Honduran Milk Snakes get out of a breeding tub where she was having a "date night". I located her pretty quickly behind a very heavy set of solid oak drawers that also had two of my enclosures stacked on it. I dreaded the thought of trying to move these drawers as they weigh about 250 lbs and would involve a lot of extra moving "stuff". I noticed that when I shined the flashlight on the snake she seemed interested in it. I placed the flashlight on the floor so that it shined behind the drawers on the snake. Sure enough, within a minute or two, she had come out from behind the drawers and was nosing all around the flashlight lense. I calmly reached over, picked her up and place her back in her enclosure. She was most definitely attracted to the light and I suspect she associated the light with warmth. Just my two cents worth...
jjhill001
07-11-17, 08:23 PM
My input is not needed here, but I felt the need to weigh in anyway. I agree with the statement that snakes are more likely to associate light with warmth than the other way around. One example that I had tends to support this idea. I had one of my Honduran Milk Snakes get out of a breeding tub where she was having a "date night". I located her pretty quickly behind a very heavy set of solid oak drawers that also had two of my enclosures stacked on it. I dreaded the thought of trying to move these drawers as they weigh about 250 lbs and would involve a lot of extra moving "stuff". I noticed that when I shined the flashlight on the snake she seemed interested in it. I placed the flashlight on the floor so that it shined behind the drawers on the snake. Sure enough, within a minute or two, she had come out from behind the drawers and was nosing all around the flashlight lense. I calmly reached over, picked her up and place her back in her enclosure. She was most definitely attracted to the light and I suspect she associated the light with warmth. Just my two cents worth...
Interesting experience Jim!
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