Can't keep cool end cool!!!!

Aussie Pythons & Snakes Forum

Help Support Aussie Pythons & Snakes Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Status
Not open for further replies.

davidt797

New Member
Joined
Dec 23, 2017
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Currently have a wooden terrarium with a glass front with a single male shingleback as it's occupant. Using a ceramic heat emitter on one end and a uvb light across the terrarium. Days with normal room temp (25 degrees centigrade and under) I have a nice 5 degree difference in temp. Anything above 25 degrees however and the temp pretty much just equalises.
Concerned because obviously he won't be able to move to a non-existent cool end. I've tried leaving the fan on in the room and even pointing the fan into the vent, to little effect.

Any suggestions on how to keep the cool end cool on hot days?
 
Aircon. It's how I've been keeping my pythons and egg incubator from getting too hot for the last 3 days.
Even had to move my 2 mice breeding tanks down stairs into the aircon 3 days ago.
 
Currently have a wooden terrarium with a glass front with a single male shingleback as it's occupant. Using a ceramic heat emitter on one end and a uvb light across the terrarium. Days with normal room temp (25 degrees centigrade and under) I have a nice 5 degree difference in temp. Anything above 25 degrees however and the temp pretty much just equalises.
Concerned because obviously he won't be able to move to a non-existent cool end. I've tried leaving the fan on in the room and even pointing the fan into the vent, to little effect.

Any suggestions on how to keep the cool end cool on hot days?
Aircon is only way for snake and lizard enclosures but most northern Australian species (do you know where your shingleback originated) are quite ok with mid 30s temperature for short periods, Diamonds need a cool spot. I put frozen water bottles in with my rodents and that might help with hot lizards.
 
I tried the frozen bottle thing for the mice, the adult trios sort of had a bit of a lay about them but I've got 16 hoppers/weaners that wouldn't go near it and all huddled in their hide so I just carted their tank down into the reptile room and set them on the floor in the corner. Aircon has them happy and alive still. My 600 litre turtle tanks are situated under ceiling fans running flat out circulating the cool airconditioned air and keeping the water temp from rising above 24°
 
Because of their armoured like scales Shinglebacks are capable of tolerating rather high temperatures. In the wild they are often encountered out and about during the hottest part of the day however, when temperatures get to an extreme they find refuge by going underground.

There's a couple of options you could try,

1. Connect the ceramic heat emitter to a timer so it turns on early in the morning for a few hours to let the lizard bask to a suitable temperature and then off during the hottest part of the day and back on a couple of hours before dark;
2. Connect a thermostat to the light and set it to turn off at 30 deg C and back on at low 20's
3. Move it to a larger enclosure that can provide a suitable gradient;
4. Provide a substrate at a depth where they lizard can find refuge from the heat (you can place a poly pipe wide enough for the lizard to access & get into under the substrate at the cool end;
5. Move the enclosure to the coolest room of the house;
6. Move to a room with aircon;
7. Use a combination of one or more of the above.
 
Aircon is only way for snake and lizard enclosures but most northern Australian species (do you know where your shingleback originated) are quite ok with mid 30s temperature for short periods, Diamonds need a cool spot. I put frozen water bottles in with my rodents and that might help with hot lizards.

he's an eastern
 
Put in a diveder (hot room- cool room). Add a couple more vents on cool end.

2c
 
All good suggestions above.
You could try changing to a heat globe rather than the ceramic heat emitter. The globe will provide a hot spot, but won't warm as much of the enclosure as the CHE.
 
You could even try making a heat tile with some old tiles and a heat cord instead of using lamps. That way you'll get a hot spot without heating all the air in the enclosure as well.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest posts

Back
Top