Keeping snakes without a hotspot

[dannybgoode]

Originally Posted by MesoCorney

Your experience in the hobby tells you there is no ideal temperature to keep a snake at. They thermoregulate because outside conditions are not controllable. When they get too hot, they move somewhere cool. When theu get cold they move somewhere warm, if it exists. If a wild snake were able to find a place that maintained an ideal temperature, had a food source, and gave it security than I question if the snake would need to thermoregulate. I don't think anyone keeps snakes at the maximum temperatures we see on hotspots so i doubt over active metabolism is relavent.

So why in a viv with a hot spot then where there is likely to be a point where the temperature is 'ideal' and food is regular as is water does a snake still choose to stay for prolojged periods of time at different positions in that viv?

I doubt very much that a snake likes to be at a single temperature all the time but I guess unless there is a major study into the subject we'll never know for sure.