Ok, so I have my snake rack in my garage and it gets pretty cold out there this time of year (55-60 at the lowest, but usually around 65). My rack is a fully enclosed rack built out of solid mahogany and has insulation on the back to keep the heat in and the cold out. It has held temps very consistent since I've owned it (got it in August). I measure the back (hot spot) and the front. They are 91-92 in back and they never get below 78 in the front (usually it's at 80-82) no matter how cold the garage is. I know some keepers have theirs inside in rooms that are always 82 degrees and up, but that's not possible for me. My question is, is this OK as long as the inside of the tub is the temps I listed? My snakes and geckos all have no problems since I've had them out there, but I just wanted a few opinions from more experienced snake people. Thanks for the responses and cheers. :cheers:

If you want to see my rack it's posted on my facebook….link below (It's the big one with my daughter standing in front of it.) :).

Nobody has factual opinions on this? Please....

If your temps are holding in the range you stated then you should have no problems. The slight drop of you cool side will act as a season change for them and be more natural to there life cycles.

Thank you very much! This is what I expected, but it seems that everyone likes to keep the room itself warm. If your temps in the tub are good, I don't see the point of a high electrical bill. Thanks again!

Doesn't really matter what your room temps are. The temps your snakes are seeing are what is important. Some people (including myself) keep the room temps at close to their snake's POTZ (Preferred Optimal Temperature Zone) because that requires less supplemental heat, but there is nothing wrong with controlling the temps only in your boxes. The only question i have about your current set up is the size. If the tubs are very small and there is that much of a temp gradient, then the snake may not be able to fully position himself into his POTZ. Exaggerated to illustrate the point, if you were housing an 8 ft snake in a 3ft by 1 ft box, there is no way the snake could get his whole body into the temp he wanted to be in. Otherwise, I think you are fine doing it the way you are doing it.

I totally understand that. I will be getting some larger tubs for my larger females...although none are 8 ft!). I only have 2 breeding size females right now. My tubs are 32 qt. tubs. And are 18 inches wide. The depth is what I'm a little worried about. I know of breeders who use that size tub for everyone but their 3000 gram and up females, but I'd feel more comfortable with 41 qt. tubs. Thanks for the info, it's much appreciated.

I totally understand that. I will be getting some larger tubs for my larger females...although none are 8 ft!). I only have 2 breeding size females right now. My tubs are 32 qt. tubs. And are 18 inches wide. The depth is what I'm a little worried about. I know of breeders who use that size tub for everyone but their 3000 gram and up females, but I'd feel more comfortable with 41 qt. tubs. Thanks for the info, it's much appreciated.

Yeah, I realize that was probably the case. I was purposely exaggerating to make sure you understood what I was getting at. I think you're doing fine.

Mine are in my basement and it is about 68 in here right now. The fronts of the little tubs are 75-80 and the fronts of my breeders are 70. They are all 85-90 on the hot spots. This allows my big girls to go where they want to cool down. Some are in front and some are in the middle. Most stay away from the heat right now. But I don't want to cool the hot spot - I just had one girl ovulate and she will need the heat.

I think your set up if fine as long as it stays pretty constant....

I would still check it every day with a temp gun just to make sure your still good
with your temps.

Thank you very much! This is what I expected, but it seems that everyone likes to keep the room itself warm. If your temps in the tub are good, I don't see the point of a high electrical bill. Thanks again!

I keep my snake room at an ambient temperature of 82-84. But I have a room that is just for my reptiles so that make it easier. But to heat the room I use an oil filled heater hooked to a thermostat. If you go this route don't buy the cheap oil filled heaters. I have a DeLongii brand. Its worth the money. Anyway, once the room gets to temp the heater doesn't have to work hard to hold temperature, so it doesn't noticeably cost me anymore to just heat my room and my room is now much less of a fire hazard not running any heat tape.

We also do as Jaymz does: heat the room to the desired ambient temp and we no longer use heat tape. This applies only to our ball pythons and it's worked wonders! A few years back we had a Ranco fail (the relay got stuck in the "On" position) and the heat tape just stayed on. All of the snakes were at the front of their tubs, temps on the tape were about 101 to 105. That was it for me! After seeing the results of the fires in the past as well as my own personal experience, we went to just keeping a steady ambient temp of 82 to 84 during the day, which drops to about 79 to 81 at night. Our breeding has been awesome, babies feed readily, and we sleep well at night not having to keep an eye on a bunch of thermostats!

I tried this recently, but even with the 10x10 heated to 83 the bottom few rows always seemed to stay in the upper 70s. How do you heat the room?

the problem you may be having is circulating the heat. You gotta have a fan pushing the warm air back down, or pushing the cool air to the top. Either way you have to mix it up. My heating works two ways:

First, during the cooler months I run oil heaters that sit on the floor. I usually have two running with fans to move the air around. I also have a split unit AC/Heater, but I keep the AC set on all the time. This way, if the heat ever gets too high in there the AC will kick on to knock it back down a few degrees. Texas weather can be funny, the temperature swings are brutal!

Second, I don't have flourescent lighting in my room, I actually use a track lighting. The fixtures take small bulbs, 35 or 50 watt. These little guys put out some heat! When my lights kick on during my daylight hours, it will raise the temps in the room a couple of degrees. This actually creates my normal day time temps, and when the lights go out at night the room drops a couple of degrees for my "night drop".

This isn't something that I tried terribly hard to make happen, it just works out that way and they've done extremely well with it.

So after all the worrying about my temps in my snake "room" (it's a garage :))…..all of my snakes have been feeding great, shedding great and I had a lockup within 3 hours of putting them together the other day! So I guess that the cold temps in my garage aren't affecting them negatively. Thanks again for all the responses and I hope everyone has a safe Xmas!

Again, I put a pair together last night and it was literally freezing out last night (even for California) and lo and behold, i woke up to a Xmas lock! The garage was 49 degrees in the early morning, but the tubs were at 84. Maybe I just have really horny snakes?? LOL!! Merry Xmas everyone!

Hi, just saw your post about ambient temperatures. I am also thinking about, only to heat the room without heatpanels. Your wrote:

we went to just keeping a steady ambient temp of 82 to 84 during the day, which drops to about 79 to 81 at night.

Are this your breeding temps or regular temps or do you keep this temps all day?

Nice concept, anyway. Just checked out your website, really like the pics of your breeding facility.

best regards,
Marcello