Surface and Air Temps

[KORBIN5895]

Originally Posted by infernalis

As politely as possible, it's commonly 100+ in those jungles.

I spent 3 weeks in Brasil and it was sweltering there, when I stepped off the first plane in Rio, it felt exactly like it does when I open my monitor cage.

The herps in Ubatuba were quick, they could get out the way fast.

Now, think this through a little, when we see boas and pythons in nature documentaries, we see them moving about hunting and exploring, moving right along.

Why is it considered standard practice to keep them cooler?? is this like the magic number where they slow down enough to be manageable without being low enough to cause harm??

I'm just confused why folks are so concerned about one or two or even 20 degrees.

The main reason I think we use lower temps is because these snakes don't have 105°f all year long. Yeah it was like that for three weeks but not for the whole year. Most keepers are looking to set a temperature and to leave it.

Another reason why you don't want high temps all of the time is that a snakes metabolism is affected by temperature. So a higher temp will keep a snakes metabolism running at full tilt all the time which isn't healthy for them.

[EmbraceCalamity]

Originally Posted by KORBIN5895

The main reason I think we use lower temps is because these snakes don't have 105°f all year long. Yeah it was like that for three weeks but not for the whole year. Most keepers are looking to set a temperature and to leave it.

Another reason why you don't want high temps all of the time is that a snakes metabolism is affected by temperature. So a higher temp will keep a snakes metabolism running at full tilt all the time which isn't healthy for them.

That's the joy of temp gradients, though, isn't it? They might rarely use it, but at least it's there in case they need to. I keep my leo's hot side hotter than is usually suggested, and she spends most of her time halfway between cool and hot sides, but sometimes she still does utilise the high temps of the hot side. If it's too hot, they can just move. I'd be inclined to think it'd only be a real issue if there was no temp gradient or it was so hot, it would burn the snake.

~Maggot

[Aaron_S]

Originally Posted by EmbraceCalamity

That's the joy of temp gradients, though, isn't it? They might rarely use it, but at least it's there in case they need to. I keep my leo's hot side hotter than is usually suggested, and she spends most of her time halfway between cool and hot sides, but sometimes she still does utilise the high temps of the hot side. If it's too hot, they can just move. I'd be inclined to think it'd only be a real issue if there was no temp gradient or it was so hot, it would burn the snake.

~Maggot

I believe people use lower temps because they suck at keeping their reptiles properly.

Reptiles usually put security before temperature and a lot of people weren't using two hides. One on the cool and one on the hot. Just one on the hot or cold. It eventually killed their animal. If the enclosure is set up right with a couple hides and even high temps on one end, I don't see a problem with it. The key (which you've obviously used) is to keep the animals secure anywhere in the enclosure.

Also, I'm biased here, but Mr. Irwin was huge 10 or so years ago. I was but a teen working in a pet store as my first real job. I had a lot of people say they now know how to deal with venomous by tailing the snake. I would correct them that they shouldn't ever do it anyway because Steve was an 'expert'. He did a lot of good for our hobby and community and even though we know better than he did it's up to us to dispell his myths a bit more.

I like to believe his positives outweighed the negatives. He brought lots of new people to the hobby, young and old and I don't mind doing a bit of extra work teaching someone what he did right or wrong because it's just one more passion filled person for our niche place.

Viperkeeper, I've seen his videos. He's bad news. The typical "The rules don't apply to me" mentality because "he's more skilled" than anyone else. As Jerry stated, everyone looks upto him and anyone who goes by all protocols looks like a wimp. Except BWSmith. That guy was a champ of protocol.