Unregulated summer temps and my BCI

[Tre3hugger]

So I have my year+ old bci in an AP T8 4x2x1. She is heated with a pro products 75w rhp on a thermostat. I typically have the hot side set at 89 and the cold side ambient hangs at around 78-81. The last couple days have been pretty hot out and I don't have AC in the house. I am off grid and power my house with solar panels and a generator backup so AC is not an option. Her cold side climbed to 83 degrees today.

I know 83 is nothin to worry about but it's only May and I am worried that her cold side will be too hot come August. I bought 150% more eco-earth then is currently in her cage with the thought that the extra substrate would offer her opportunity to burrow in the soil I will moisten with cool water. I also got some sphagnum moss I could soak for her to slither around in. Her water bowl is huge.

My questions: I have read about frozen water bottles and other quick fix solutions in a pinch but prefer a more automated solution so I don't need to be changing out water bottles every time it is hot. Do you think my substrate/moss addition will be sufficient? Or should I add a cabinet fan on a high end thermostat? My thinking being if it gets up to say, 95 degrees, I could have the fan turn on and cause some evaporative cooling from the substrate and water bowl, turning back off at 90. It wouldn't run often and she has the humid hide if the air gets dried out. Any disadvantages of a fan I am not thinking of? I already have my eye on one, but didnt want to spend the money until I heard from you guys it was on ok idea. Is a mister an option for cooling, or is it primarily just for raising humidity?

Thanks so much for reading this novel. Appreciate any advice.

[Tre3hugger]

Anyone? Please?

[chairman]

A first step for you could be to place the enclosure directly on the ground. It will be cooler down there than at any other level in the house.

Your plan with the fan will probably not work. A fan can suck hot air out of the top of the cage but the cage will still be the same temperature as the room it is in. If the cage is getting hotter than the room then the fan might help.

Likewise, piling substrate won't really help. It is cooler underground but you can't really replicate that just by piling dirt in a cage. That and a T8 won't hold all that much dirt.

You will probably need to cool things off by circulating cool water through the cage. The basic idea is that you run a coil of hose under the substrate on the cool side of your cage and have a pump move water through the hose, creating a cool spot. (I don't think this approach will lower overall cage temps.) 1/4" hose will probably fit through the vents of the T8 without adjustment. They make solar powered pumps that you could use to move the water.

There are a lot of ways to cool the water. Use a cooler as the storage tank for the water and dump ice in there every couple days. Use a 10 or 20 gallon aquarium and a fan powered aquarium cooler. Use a genuine aquarium cooler (though these are expensive and may pull more current than your system allows). Keeping the storage tank in a mini fridge could work too (also may be too much of a power hog). Burying the storage tank, or keeping it in a crawl space, could work too.

[Tre3hugger]

Originally Posted by chairman

A first step for you could be to place the enclosure directly on the ground. It will be cooler down there than at any other level in the house.

Your plan with the fan will probably not work. A fan can suck hot air out of the top of the cage but the cage will still be the same temperature as the room it is in. If the cage is getting hotter than the room then the fan might help.

Likewise, piling substrate won't really help. It is cooler underground but you can't really replicate that just by piling dirt in a cage. That and a T8 won't hold all that much dirt.

You will probably need to cool things off by circulating cool water through the cage. The basic idea is that you run a coil of hose under the substrate on the cool side of your cage and have a pump move water through the hose, creating a cool spot. (I don't think this approach will lower overall cage temps.) 1/4" hose will probably fit through the vents of the T8 without adjustment. They make solar powered pumps that you could use to move the water.

There are a lot of ways to cool the water. Use a cooler as the storage tank for the water and dump ice in there every couple days. Use a 10 or 20 gallon aquarium and a fan powered aquarium cooler. Use a genuine aquarium cooler (though these are expensive and may pull more current than your system allows). Keeping the storage tank in a mini fridge could work too (also may be too much of a power hog). Burying the storage tank, or keeping it in a crawl space, could work too.

Thank you, Chairman, for the sound advice. I realized the sun through the window of the room plus her glass tank door was aligning and really heating things up. I moved her cage a bit and put a black out blind on "her' window. Seems to be holding the temps at bay, and it goes up for most days when she appreciates the sunshine.

One more question. At what temp for a bci on the high end would you consider critical and time to intervene? Thanks again!

[chairman]

Generally, heat harms animals through dehydration, causing neurological damage, and causing metabolism problems. I'm sure there are others but I'm not a doctor and only have a working knowledge of these things.

Dehydration can be the easiest to deal with, especially for adult animals. First, you have a closed PVC enclosure that is very effective at trapping moisture, so that's a huge help. You also seem to use substrate, a big help; keep it moist but not wet. Add a good size water bowl on the hot side, and one on the cool side for good measure, and dehydration should not be a problem.

I don't know at which temperature BIs suffer from neurological issues. My crested geckos can't have temps above 85. If 90 is the recommended high temperature then I would not want to exceed that by more than 5 degrees. 5 degrees above a normal body temperature is considered a potentially harmful fever for humans, so it is probably safe to use that as a benchmark.

I also don't know what kind of prolonged temperatures will cause metabolic problems for a BI. Boas usually have low metabolisms, so it is possible that you might just have to feed more often this summer.

I was once a member of a forum with someone that was convinced that just about any reptile could be kept with a cool side of 70 and a hot spot of 110 (surface temp) IF: the enclosure was about twice the recommended minimum size for the species; and the animal had at least 12" of substrate capable of holding a burrow. The theory was that with that much space and temperature range the animal would be able to thermoregulate and find the humidity it needed. To my knowledge, that keeper was very successful with the animals they kept.

Barring a good cooling solution during the day, I would do my very best to allow substantial drops in temperature overnight. If you are facing 95 on the cool side during the day then I would be tempted to let the temp drop into the mid 60s on the cool side at night if nature allows it. Giving the snake a bath in the evenings to help suck away heat could help too, though I would avoid handling too much (you are a 98 degree heat source). Basically, the snake needs to regulate its temps, so try to give it a chance to retreat to cooler areas when you can.