Surface vs ambient temps

[Striker]

Hi all
I have a question about my Olives temps. It's getting pretty cold where I am. My enclosure has heat cord on a slate tile running all day and night. During the day an additional reflector globe comes on above the tile.
This gives me surface temps on the tile of 25 - 30 degrees overnight ( depending on how cold it gets) and during the day the tile hits about 35 degrees.

My concern is that everywhere else in the enclosure is really cold. As low as 10 degrees overnight and maxing about 20 degrees through the day. The only warm thing in the enclosure is the surface of the tile.

So my question is, do ambient temps matter as long as the snake has a warm surface to make contact with? She seems active enough, doesn't spend all her time on the tile and still swims occasionally. She stopped eating about 6 weeks ago. I didn't have to worry about this issue it last year because she was still in a click clack, and all my other snakes have been colder weather snakes (diamonds, coastal) so I wanted to get some opinions on this. I can install a CHE if ambient temps need to be higher.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Skeptic]

I seriously doubt the ambient temp in your enclosure would get down to 10 degrees. Here in port we haven't even had nighttime lows of 10 yet. I'm assuming your enclosure is in your house AND it's got a 35 degree tile sitting in it.

ATM, it's 13 degrees outside and 19 degrees inside and I'm not running a heater. I wouldn't be worried at all. I wouldn't even bother with the heat mat over night yet.

 

[Striker]

Now that's pretty funny....and please please don't think I'm being offensive here, but I genuinely thought it was funny that the first response I get is from "Skeptic" who begins a post with "I seriously doubt......". Thanks for the reassurance. I do appreciate it, particularly from someone living in the same area and knowing the climate.

I did exaggerate slightly I guess, but not by much. At 7am this morning the walls of the enclosure were 12 degrees (which is approximately where it's been dropping to on some nights over the last couple of weeks). I exaggerated based on an assumption that it would be even colder at the coldest time of the day (before sunrise) but I'm not getting up at 4am just to check the temps, so I estimated using a nice round number of about 10 degrees. In any case it's all a long way off Northern Territory temps which are still hitting 35 through the day and 25 (approximately) overnight. The only reason I'm even thinking about it is because it's an Olive and relatively new to me. So you reckon the ambient temps don't matter as long as they have a warm surface?

 

[Pythoninfinite]

I'm in Tele Point, and I don't think you have anything to worry about if you leave the heat source on overnight in the coolest part of the year. If you are seriously concerned, you can just put a box (with an access hole, can even be a cardbord box) over the heat source to confine the heat somewhat, and create a warm retreat. Just make the box bigger than the heated pad so that the snake is not forced to lie right on top of the heat source, and can lie beside it if needed.

Olives come from a very wide range across the north of the country, and in inland areas they endure very cold nights at this time of the year. Don't forget that most of the weather report temps you see are from coastal towns like Darwin, Broome & Cairns - even 20km away from the coast temps are far more extreme (the differences between Port & Wauchope in winter and summer are quite significant, even though only about 20k separates the towns). As long as they have a secure retreat they'll be fine.

Jamie

 

[Striker]

Cool. Thanks Jamie and Skeptic. I'll relax now.

 

[Boondocker]

Hi all
I have a question about my Olives temps. It's getting pretty cold where I am. My enclosure has heat cord on a slate tile running all day and night. During the day an additional reflector globe comes on above the tile.
This gives me surface temps on the tile of 25 - 30 degrees overnight ( depending on how cold it gets) and during the day the tile hits about 35 degrees.

My concern is that everywhere else in the enclosure is really cold. As low as 10 degrees overnight and maxing about 20 degrees through the day. The only warm thing in the enclosure is the surface of the tile.

So my question is, do ambient temps matter as long as the snake has a warm surface to make contact with? She seems active enough, doesn't spend all her time on the tile and still swims occasionally. She stopped eating about 6 weeks ago. I didn't have to worry about this issue it last year because she was still in a click clack, and all my other snakes have been colder weather snakes (diamonds, coastal) so I wanted to get some opinions on this. I can install a CHE if ambient temps need to be higher.

Thanks for your help.

Ambient temps affect the rate at which heat moves through the snake. The greater the delta t the harder heat works to move between the two. So what happens is, as ambient temps drop, heat works at leaving the snake's body faster than the heat entering the snake from below (and the rate at which heat leaves the slate tile also increases) and we have a chilled snake. Now, whether these temps are good for your species I'll leave that input to those that keep them.