As Serpenttongue mentioned no wire in the top, as plenty of sun enters through the sides of the aviary.
My avairy is positioned under two trees that shade it very well. The pythons get good dose of morning sun and then have shade from the midday & afternoon sun.
I was very concerned about the heat wave. I try to give the pythons opions. I have froam boxes on shelves for them to hide in & I provide some on the bottom of the aviary as well. The outside air temps where very similar to the inside of there boxes, so still far to hot.
On this 45deg day I had to hose the aviary down to try to cool evreything, the Diamonds all went to ground and hid under the timber shelves that the hides are sitting on. The ground was much cooler from the water & evaperation process.
I am going to go and get a couple of heavy hollow logs to sit in the middle of the aviary, on a hot day I will wet it down and it will cool them much better than what I have already provided.
They also have a very large deep water bowl, that I kept flushing with cold water but they didnt bother with getting in it.
I dont have Serpenttongue's experience so I do play alot of this by ear and try to use common sence.
I had them outside in a smaller aviary for the better part of the past winter with no heating at all. They did very well and came out & sat in the sun every day that the sun was out.
It is interesting to watch their behaviour when kept outside. They react & behave very different to when kept inside in pooky interanl enclosures.
Hey!.. Serpenttongue do you notice that on very hot days when it is to hot for them to come out & sit in the sun. That they become very active at night. :?:
Where if they are out during the day, they are not active at night.
From watching my Diamonds for the past six months that they have been in the aviary, they dont seem nearly as nocternal as Carpet Pythons.
:idea: To test this, I had a female Coastal share the aviary with them for a few months. I very rarely saw the coastal during the day, but she was out most nights being very active, much more active than the Diamonds.
(This has got to be the longest post I have ever written.)