What happened to discussion/debate in the reptile community?

[RAD House]

I am all for intelligent discussion and i tend to agree the old guard can be hard headed. Let's be honest often their methods are functional or they wouldn't have been in the hobby for so long. On the flip side I often see new recruits injecting some opinion that they have not tested themselves as fact. To be honest this is far more dangerous than the functional advice of the experienced members of the hobby. For example I am part of a facebook bioactive reptile group that is vehemently against racks for ball pythons, but from what I can tell the people that post this stuff either own a couple ball pythons or even none at all. They often use a study that found ball pythons can be found it trees, but if you read the the study even they admit this is a small subset if the population and really only includes juvenile males. I am all for pushing the hobby forward but be sure to introduce your information for what it is, untested ideas not fact. Also please provide the sources you used to form said ideas, so that it can properly be discussed.

[Andy_G]

Originally Posted by MesoCorney

I am all for intelligent discussion and i tend to agree the old guard can be hard headed. Let's be honest often their methods are functional or they wouldn't have been in the hobby for so long. On the flip side I often see new recruits injecting some opinion that they have not tested themselves as fact. To be honest this is far more dangerous than the functional advice of the experienced members of the hobby. For example I am part of a facebook bioactive reptile group that is vehemently against racks for ball pythons, but from what I can tell the people that post this stuff either own a couple ball pythons or even none at all. They often use a study that found ball pythons can be found it trees, but if you read the the study even they admit this is a small subset if the population and really only includes juvenile males. I am all for pushing the hobby forward but be sure to introduce your information for what it is, untested ideas not fact. Also please provide the sources you used to form said ideas, so that it can properly be discussed.

I agree with this! "I own 1 xx and I disagree with everything and everyone that came before me" is NOT enough to form a new or well informed method of keeping to pass on to others.

[jjhill001]

People can combine theories and methodologies of care. If you go with a slightly larger than standard tubs you can actually run bio-active in them. I've never done it personally but I remember reading about it. For example I keep my snakes a little cooler than some people. I think 90 is way too hot for many snakes for a hotspot. My ambients are much more important to me and my snakes.

Some people literally freak when I say I don't really have that hot of a hotspot. I've found that this produces fewer shed problems and less reliance on overly high humidity. Now I make this work for me personally based on my house temps and climate I live in. Some people need that high hot spot just to keep their ambient temps within reason.

[dannybgoode]

Originally Posted by jjhill001

People can combine theories and methodologies of care. If you go with a slightly larger than standard tubs you can actually run bio-active in them. I've never done it personally but I remember reading about it. For example I keep my snakes a little cooler than some people. I think 90 is way too hot for many snakes for a hotspot. My ambients are much more important to me and my snakes.

Some people literally freak when I say I don't really have that hot of a hotspot. I've found that this produces fewer shed problems and less reliance on overly high humidity. Now I make this work for me personally based on my house temps and climate I live in. Some people need that high hot spot just to keep their ambient temps within reason.

A proper hot spot is essential to allow for proper digestion of food and is somewhat species specific. There's European species that require much cooler hot spots and ambient temperatures than say a sub Saharan or Australian snake.

Often times a snake will only use the hotspot whilst digesting preferring other areas of the enclosure the rest of the time so absolutely ambient temperatures and a proper temperature gradient are important but so is a proper hot basking area.

If corns are local to you and you see one in the wild basking in a nice warm spot, grab your temperature gun and measure the temp and that'll give you a good idea what to aim for.

Of course temperature fluctuates through the season and day to night and I cycle my temperatures accordingly also.

[Andy_G]

Originally Posted by jjhill001

People can combine theories and methodologies of care. If you go with a slightly larger than standard tubs you can actually run bio-active in them. I've never done it personally but I remember reading about it. For example I keep my snakes a little cooler than some people. I think 90 is way too hot for many snakes for a hotspot. My ambients are much more important to me and my snakes.

Some people literally freak when I say I don't really have that hot of a hotspot. I've found that this produces fewer shed problems and less reliance on overly high humidity. Now I make this work for me personally based on my house temps and climate I live in. Some people need that high hot spot just to keep their ambient temps within reason.

I've actually found the opposite with a lot of species in regards to basking temps...but if it works for you then that's that!