Keeping snakes without a hotspot

[dannybgoode]

Originally Posted by dave himself View Post
Also you'd have take into consideration if you have a variety of different reptiles in our collection, all needing different temperatures. Another thing is if you have a heat failure on your system, every animal could be cooked or frozen depending on what goes wrong

No I think you raise a very important point here Dave. Snakes *survive* in sub optimal conditions. Snakes (as will most any animal) breed in sub optimal conditions. I don't see breeding in and of itself as a sign that a snake, or indeed any animal, is being kept well or otherwise.

Look at puppy farms (which *some* reptile breeders are akin to). They sure breed a lot of dogs but I don't see people rushing out to copy their methods and propgate their practices on the internet. Yet people hear X snake breeder does y so y just be a great way of keeping snakes. No y method just means that breeder can churn out a lot of animals for less money (and note comment isn't aimed at any individual in particular).

There may well be a single temperature that a range of species will do ok at but for example using the figure of 85f (a little over 29c) that's been quoted here - that would kill my persicus and would be far too hot for a number of Asian and European species.

As a daytime temperature too cool (optimally speaking) for most Australian species and too warm for almost all species as a nighttime temperature. Almost nowhere on earth is it that warm throughout the night.

Also provide a single temperature is likely to discourage movement. Most capture snakes are under-exercised as it is and anything that further discourages movement and care exploration is a negative imo.

I can quite see why it's done and for similar species perhaps it works but I don't think it's good practice for the reasons I mention in this and other posts on this thread.