Heating question

ChristinaM · 03-12-04, 12:34 AM

Does the heat have to be on 24/7? Or can it be put on a timer for a day night cycle? ( same question applying to both a cornsnake and brb)

Thx.

morph · 03-12-04, 01:29 AM

Are you talking about the basking or the ambient?

Scott

Jeff_Favelle · 03-12-04, 02:31 AM

Always have your heat on. Rainbows don't stop trying to digest food just because its night time.

ChristinaM · 03-12-04, 08:14 AM

That's what I thought. Thanks Jeff.

To start an educational thread, I'm assuming in nature they don't have 24hrs of heat. So why is it nessecary in captivity?

Dani33 · 03-12-04, 08:24 AM

In a way they do. They come from amtropical environment. So it's more or less warm all the time. Also, just becsause the sun goes down doesn't mean that the earth isn't still warm. The earth retains a large amount of heat.

morph · 03-12-04, 01:23 PM

NO way they definitely don't need a basking spot 24/7 12 hours or so a day will be fine but it doesn't hurt to leave it on 24

Big_V · 03-12-04, 03:59 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Dani33
In a way they do. They come from amtropical environment. So it's more or less warm all the time. Also, just becsause the sun goes down doesn't mean that the earth isn't still warm. The earth retains a large amount of heat.

Im gonna have to go with Danielle and Jeff on this one. Even if its night and it gets cool snakes will seek out a warmer spot to digest food. They just dont sit there and be like oh well to cold to digest, better just sit here. The point of the 'hot spot' is to allow the snake to choose what it wants to do. So giving it that chance I feel is completely necessary.
Cheers, Ryan

morph · 03-12-04, 07:57 PM

Ryan they have that choice all day, what I am saying is it is not neccesary to have a hot spot on all night as long as the ambient is still correct. The basking spot is not going too turn off and instantly go to ambient the substrate will slowly cool as well not as slowly as earth but still not instant. My point is rainbows will do just fine as long as given a hotspot for 12 hours or so a day their metabolism is insane. So I guess my first ? is asked of everyone are you talking all heat or just the "basking or hot spot".

EDIT: by the way I am not saying either way is better than the other just it can be done both ways with equal success as long as the ambient is kept correct. I personally do it both ways.

Scott

Jeff_Favelle · 03-12-04, 09:05 PM

Quote:

To start an educational thread, I'm assuming in nature they don't have 24hrs of heat. So why is it nessecary in captivity?

To answer that question, I must first ask you how Rainbows obtain the heat they need in the wild?

2 hints:

1) Rainbows are nocturnal
2) Since they are nocturnal, they don't get it from the sun.

If you can answer that question, then you'll know why they need heat at night, and why basking lamps blow for Rainbow Boas.