Is my king kept too warm?

[Andy_G]

How can you tell if your snake is in too hot of a climate? The reason I ask this is that I have a king that is only active at night with the light off but when she was at the pet store she was active in the day. The ambience temperatures in the tank are 74 and 83, and at night the temps go down to 68 and 72. I also use an under tank heater. Should I just keep the light off and use the under tank heater instead? Wouldn't she get some type of respiratory infection if the ambience temp is 68 and 72 or does it only matter about the substrate temperature?

[Big Mike]

I would say...keep the light cycle. Some snakes are active durring the day...some durring the night.

As far as temps...you want to know the temperature that the snake is exposed to...the temps of the substrate. Depending on the ventilation, if the air temp is 83 then the substrate may be too hot. Place a good thermometer right on the substrate.