I never thought id ask this..

[Dom]

How do u COOl down a tank lol .. not heat it up ..

I have been cooling down my bull snakes now for a while now but I have never been able to bring the temps low nough during the nightime ..

My average low temps for the night were of 70.8 F' .. I woul like it to be about 10F' lower ... now how do I get it lower .. heres my problem, I am in a basement, coolest place in the house and I can't have the whole room go cooler cause I have other pytons wich are cooled at that temp during the night ..

So how do I cool of only one tank? Any suggestions? A fan maybe? i am running out of idea...

[North]

Well you buy one of those 12 volt Coleman coolers that cools to 10 degrees below ambient temps and then you.. umm and then you...ok where was i going with this.........

[silke]

you could maybe put a hot water bottle with cold water and ice across the top (if the tank has a screen lid)

[reverendsterlin]

check the temps in one of your closets/cabinets, temps may be lower where doors close off heat access

[Dom]

North .. I dunno if that was a joke but I am defenetly not paying to cool down a cage .. i pay enough to warm them!

Silke...

The idea is great but i need smoething permenant tat will last for at least a month so unfortunatly i can't be doing that..

Rev...

Unfortunetly the only closet/room closed off to heat from the overall room in my basement is actually my White Throates cage .. wich is very warm .. but u have ginen me an idea..

My cage that there in is a HUGE Octogonal aquarium split in two .. NO heating at all .. with a screem meshing .. they are on cypress ulch..

If i cover the screen mesh, and almost stop completly the aircirculation, do u think th heat would be lessened? If i put them on newspaper, they would sit directly on glass - would tht be colder and if so - how would I be able to measure the temp of the galss .. thease are some ideas - let me know what u think..

Tx for the replies guys..

Dom

[Big Mike]

A lot of houses have a cold storage room which is just a room in the basement that is not heated as well as being insulated from the ambient heat of the house...you could simulate this on a smaller scale.

If you can put it somewhere on the cool basement floor (concrete) and up against an outside wall and insulate it from the warm air...maybe.

[Katt]

Put them in a small container Dom, and then put them near a window.

[Dom]

Big Mike ..

Great idea.. I can take the tank for the stand and sit it directly on the cement floor (althour the tank has a one inch gap ( so it does not actualy touch the floor .. Tx for the suggestions .. but no cooling room in our basement .. as I said .. the only other room or closet is my white throats cage ..


Katt ..

There both 4 feet long .. that would be a pretty big container but no imposible. Although it is an option for now .. but I would much rather not ..

I have no window in my bsement .. lol I know its a fire hazard.. I could bring em upstairs near a window but I know that I will neglect em if all my animals are not together .. I know myself.. (i used to alwasy forget feeding my Jungle carpet cause he was upstaris adn all my others are downstairs .. so i moved em back downstairs)

Good suggestion though .. Ill think about putting them in containers .. I just hope it does not have to be done .. I personally like to see my animals.. theres pets b4 breeders.

Anymore suggestion anyone else ..

Tx again for all the great suggestions from everyone

[reverendsterlin]

styrofoam can be creatively taped and a wet towel with a few ice cubes could help. I have heard of drip containers being frozen and then set on top of the enclosure with the tap open dripping cold water down plastic foliage into a water trap, I considered this to help lower temps for BRB neos but decided summer heat here would melt the ice too quickly.

[Dom]

Hmm all very interesting Ideas Rev .. It would work the thing is, I want to keep these temps for a long duration so i don't want to have to change ice cubes at the end of each day ..

Tx again man I apreciate the help

[reverendsterlin]

thats the trick to the styrofoam, once temps are down you just need to maintain them, insulate from heat well enough and once temps are down they may remain down for days.

[North]

I was only semi kidding about the cooler Dom, I had to buy a small fridge and modify the thermostat to get my Mountain Kings winter temps down to below 50 degrees.. big Mike made a good call if your floor isnt heated thats not a bad idea.. you could put something metal or bags of water in the space you have under the tank to leech the cold from the cement. a dead air space would just act as an inulator. good luck

[Jeremy]

Hi Dom,
Im curious, what is your reasoning for cooling down the P.c.syai? Are you attempting to burmate them? 83-85 during the day, with a drop too 72-75 at night is perfect for bullsnakes so if your not wishing to burmate, I wouldnt even bother cooling them at all.

Now, if you are burmateing them there are a few things which I have found to work. I have had sucsess burmateing some of my Aspidelaps by putting them in a room which dosent need to be heated at all(aka, probally not your bed room during the winter!) and opening the window, just a crack. Then I put them about 6-10ft away and keep them in complete darkness untill burmation is over(except for once a week changeing their water bowls. Remeber, snakes will drink while burmateing). Here, it kept them around 55-65 degrees and that is plenty cold for near any North American snake to burmate at(especialy Pituophis).

I think the main focus in burmateing should be complete and uder darkness! Im going to try burmateing some of my South African sp at around 70 degrees this yr and just make sure they are kept in pitch blk during this time. Many sucsessfull breeder have had lots of lcuk doing this, though some others havent. Persoanly, if hibernateing is you focus, I would go with the first given tenique rather then the latter for a sayi.

Welp, if your not wishing to burmate, sorry for wasteing your time, makeing you read all of that:-)

Good luck and enjoy them bulls! I have pair myself and they are realy fun animals, especially my big, nasty, 6ft female!

All the best,
J

[Dom]

North great Idea thanks ..

J..

My intention are to burmate them .. Hence the reason I want to bring them to such cool temperatures .. Tx for all the advice .. My intentions are breeding them... Are yours Snow bulls??

I have spoken to a couple of ppl about the total darkness thing .. I have decided to use the light cycle, a few month back, they were and a 10h 30 day cycle and I have now brought them down to an 8 hour cycle .. I have decided on that path .. If you think it is much better to keep them in complete darkness than i shall.....
With heavy misting I attain temps of about 65 .. but I dont want to keep them that wet...

I have a god feeling though that once the tank is located on the ground, I will have the temps needed ..

I am siming at 60 night time and around the 65-68 daytime? How does that sound to you?

(btw where I work we also have a 6 ft bull who just laid a clutch of 17 eggs of wich 16 appear to be fertile - and nothing was done to make it hapen lol

Tx J Let me know what u think'

Dom

[reverendsterlin]

Dom, with many colubrids brumation isn't always necessary. Some folks posit that the photoperiod is all that is necessary, others that they will breed reguardless of temps and photoperiod.

[Dom]

Lol I know what u mean Rev .. In case i have decided to do the photoperiod and the brumation just in case .. If they don' breed after that, at least I will know that i have tried...

[Jeremy]

Hi again Dom,
I belive darkness to be a very important step in breeding Pituophis. Though I will admit, I have yet to do so myself(most of my Pits are still sub adults) I have spoken with many people and here is why. Most North American snakes usualy go into some sorta of den site which is located bellow the freeze line. In these deep, dark crevices little if any sunlight protrudes. Though snakes will bask on above normal temp days at the entrances of these den sites(which if their communal or not for sayai, is beyond me), the majority of their time is spent deep under ground. Suplimenting this in captivity seems to work great for many NA serpents and I would highly recomend it. The "just throwing colubrids thogether thing", may float for Cornsnakes but definately cant be used as the norm for Pituophis.

BTW, im not knocking the cycle way. i personaly do this to prep them for burmation. My whole collection has been getting what the outside proviodes and lately, thats just about at 10 hrs(I use very little eltric lightening for my snakes. Most however are nocturnal so I can get away with it). I would say continue to cycle how your doing, gradually bring em down to your desired temps(over a week and preferable more) and when you feel its time for them to say night night, put them somewhere very dark, draft free and secluded for about 3 months. I would not recomend misting them at all! Remember where they come from, very dry and arid regions. Too much water can cause big problems for Pituophis, anywhere from respitory infection to horrid scale and skin problems from being kept too wet(though I know you wernt planning on soaking them with water).

As for your intended temps, that seems about perfect for sayi! Stay with that and add the darkness thing. I think placeing their cage on the floor, in a dark corner, away from all and any sources of heat in the room would definately keep them at the desired temps. Just truy to keep em away from the vent.

I would also suggest putting them down around Dec 1rst and bringing em back the first week of March, posibly alittle earlier if ya cant wait(I know sometimes I cant) Others do it different but this is the best and most widely used time frame I have seen.

BTW, do not use a fan to cool them down! That can easily cause nuerous health problems, most commonly respitory infection or worse.

Also, my bulls are both regular phase and nothing too spectacular. i personaly dont much like the morphs, preffering the normal phases instead, though I am a hypocrite and do have an interesting albino Northern Pine and 2 hets for albino N pines.

Well bud, again, I hope this helps ya out and all the very best luck in breeding them!

Take care,
J

[Dom]

Thanks so much J ..

That is the most info anybody has ever given me on these guys .. VERY HELPFULL! There are not many sites dedicated to these pitius.. Thanxs so much again .. There are down to 70 and will be in low sixties in the next ten days .. and away from the photoperiod ...

We shall see how it goes..

Taake care Dom

[Lisa]

We're going to have the same problem, cooling the snakes cages specially since we don't have the heat on but the appt still manages to get to 25-30c...

I like that coolatron idea. we have one, and could hook it up on a timer...