Diamonds need heat just like any other python. They use it to boost their immune systems and to digest their food. Just because they are the most southern species of python in Australia and they have evolved to live in cooler climate zones then their northern cousins, doesn't mean they should be kept without ADEQUATE heating.
Some of the information I read on here regarding diamonds and what temps to keep them is just flat out wrong. Diamonds will suffer respiratory problems and other ailments if not given proper heating just like any other python.
The important thing to remember for diamonds is not the temperature. I have heard on here that letting them get over 28-30 is bad.Wrong info. I know this because I catch and relocate them, and I check the temps of wild diamonds that I catch. This has helped me with breeding them and keeping them in captivity and my captive diamonds also like to be at temps over 30 degrees, I know this because I often check their temps too.
The MOST important thing regarding temperatures for a diamond is a thermal gradient. It doesn't matter how hot a particular spot is in the enclosure... what matters is, can the snake move to a spot that it likes? I use basking lights that give a hot spot of 35-39 degrees. At times they are well and truly right in there getting full exposure and soaking up that heat. As they reach their preferred body temperature, they simply move off the heat. If they feel like they need warmth then they simply lie on the outskirts of the heat zone. If they feel vulnerable then they can move into a hide which is not in the heated zone and they will curl up tightly and hold the heat they have for hours.
I run their basking heat for 4 hrs from 8am till 12 noon. The rest of the enclosure is at the air ambient temperature of the room. This doesn't go below 20 through summer. Of course if it is a very hot day I just turn all heat off. They get no heat at night, unless they are digesting a meal and I feel the ambient temps are a little cool (usually around autumn, like now when we get these cold fronts) then I set the timer for the basking light to come on for 2 hrs from around 6pm-8pm. This just gives them that extra recharge to assist digestion and I give them that for 1 or 2 days. They can do without this extra, I have caught many diamonds with a belly full and they catch the food one night and eat it, then the bad weather moves in and we get a week of cold weather, but they survive...doesn't mean they don't do it tough though. Why make our pet diamonds suffer the extremes of the wild?
A thermal gradient is important, and ADEQUATE heat is vital for diamonds.
In winter when they are not feeding, they don't get the ambient temps that they get in summer. But they still need that hot basking site to raise their temps so they have a healthy immunity system and they can have heat to curl up with to get through until the next day. In winter I will follow the natural weather conditions and sometimes give them no basking light for up to 4-5 days, but I watch this carefully and give them heat at the end just like they get in the wild once the bad weather is gone and the sun comes out. I have recorded temps of wild diamonds as low as 4 degrees. But I don't let my captives get below 10, and if they go through prolonged cool sessions make sure they get heat at the end of it to recharge the batteries. None of my diamonds get uv. Unless I take them out into the sun.
. After all, they naturally bask in the sun on a regular basis. If UV killed Diamonds they'd be extinct in the wild in no time.
