Thoughts on night temps & dual heating

[Tsuchinoko]

I live in Sydney so It can get pretty cold, I have a 32c heat mat around on 24/7 for my Antaresia but I was thinking about getting a ceramic heat emitter that goes on at night just to make sure ambient temps don't drop too low - vets orders not to let her brumate this year because she needs to lose some weight

What are your thoughts on night temps and what set up you have for winter? Do you just let ambient temps drop to whatever and keep the heat mats as the only heat source? do you prefer CHE for winter or do you use a combo? If anyone has any thoughts/wants to share your set ups I'd be keen to know, thanks guys!

 

[Herpetology]

Your vet told you not to let her Brumate to lose weight? And mess up her yearly cycle? How about just not feeding her after brumation (and brumation)? CHE are a waste… maybe in the coldest parts of sydney you could use a room heater in the same room and keep everyone a little toasty
Myself and many others let temps drop to whatever the ambient temps are… if your setup is good they will retain the heat from their basking spot and should help them overnight

 

[Tsuchinoko]

Your vet told you not to let her Brumate to lose weight? And mess up her yearly cycle? How about just not feeding her after brumation (and brumation)? CHE are a waste… maybe in the coldest parts of sydney you could use a room heater in the same room and keep everyone a little toasty
Myself and many others let temps drop to whatever the ambient temps are… if your setup is good they will retain the heat from their basking spot and should help them overnight

Yeah, not feeding her as frequently was my strategy but he said to start feeding her every 3 weeks and to just not let her brumate, I guess the rationale is the weight loss will be more gradual but I'm not too sure honestly, he's one of the most experienced exotics vets in Sydney so I just didn't question it.

Didn't even think of a normal room heater, thats great idea, I've heard CHE are expensive to run too so thats probably the better option anyway. Thanks for the input, I appreciate it

 

[Herpetology]

An over weight snake can go months and months without feeds, 3 weeks is nothing :/

 

[Allan]

I don't think you should waste any more time and money on that vet (what was the reason you took her to the vet in the first place?)
Snakes are opportunistic feeders and in the wild will feed as much as they can in a good year with plenty of food around. In a bad year, they can go the whole season with very little food.
Cooling is just as important as heating, so like Herpetology said, try to pay attention to the yearly cycle in regards to temps, which is important when/if you'll ever try to breed her in the future, but even more for her general health.
I have two maculosa females, 28 and 29 years old that are only fed 7-8 months of the year. The rest of the year I drop the temp in order to give them a good rest.

 

[Tsuchinoko]

An over weight snake can go months and months without feeds, 3 weeks is nothing :/

Thats what I thought but he acted really shocked when I said her last meal over 2 months ago, maybe I should take his advice with a grain of salt

I don't think you should waste any more time and money on that vet (what was the reason you took her to the vet in the first place?)
Snakes are opportunistic feeders and in the wild will feed as much as they can in a good year with plenty of food around. In a bad year, they can go the whole season with very little food.
Cooling is just as important as heating, so like Herpetology said, try to pay attention to the yearly cycle in regards to temps, which is important when/if you'll ever try to breed her in the future, but even more for her general health.
I have two maculosa females, 28 and 29 years old that are only fed 7-8 months of the year. The rest of the year I drop the temp in order to give them a good rest.

Im starting to think you're right, I know not all exotics vets have an equal interests in reptiles so maybe it wasn't his specialty. I just took her for a general checkup after I bought her, she was really overweight when I first got her so I wanted to get on top of that. I don't plan on breeding her but I definitely want her to live a long healthy life so sounds like brumation is the way to go - god knows she's got plenty of fat to get her through the winter lol, thanks for the advice

 

[highlander969]

I have 2 heat mats (14W and 5W) for my Antaresia Childreni. One at hot end set at 32 degrees and the other at the cool end (only for the winter) set at 20 degrees. I do not use any other form of heating. I have the heat mat at the cool end as night temps in winter where I am can drop down to near 0 degrees.

 

[Herpetology]

I know not all exotics vets have an equal interests in reptiles so maybe it wasn't his specialty.

Exotic vet just means anything that’s not a cat or dog haha! If you don’t mind would you please pm me the vets name?

ideally you want a vet who only specialises in reptiles. Where are you located? I know a few around Australia

 

[Tsuchinoko]

I have 2 heat mats (14W and 5W) for my Antaresia Childreni. One at hot end set at 32 degrees and the other at the cool end (only for the winter) set at 20 degrees. I do not use any other form of heating. I have the heat mat at the cool end as night temps in winter where I am can drop down to near 0 degrees.

So smart, would've never thought of that, thats a great idea

Exotic vet just means anything that’s not a cat or dog haha! If you don’t mind would you please pm me the vets name?

ideally you want a vet who only specialises in reptiles. Where are you located? I know a few around Australia

He was one of the vets recommended in the reptile vets thread so I thought he'd be a safe bet but I guess not

 

[Sdaji]

Most vets are literally worse than useless and this idiot is clearly a good example.

An adult Antaresia in good condition can go literally years without a meal, and an overweight one... I have no idea but a very long time. I've had them start out in normal condition, not feed for over two years and still look fine, a little on the lean side but in good health. I've had males breed in consecutive seasons on zero feeds, and while I haven't done it personally there are cases of females having two consecutive clutches without a feed in between.

Ceramic heat emitters are pointless gimmick products aimed at beginner keepers. They are expensive, unreliable and put out unnatural heat (nocturnal reptiles can get heat from the ground at night, but there is never a dark heat source in the sky at night). Year after year, decade after decade I see beginners lamenting problems with them.

If your snake is overweight, stop feeding now, next season feed sparingly (once per month at most), maybe 5 moderate size feeds next season, and go from there.

Keeping an overweight python active and feeding through winter is just idiotic (looking at the vet who is posing as competent and charging money for bad advice, not you).

 

[user 45905]

My Spotted (4 years old) on average has a feed once a month. In the middle of QLD summer she might go to fortnightly for a little bit, in the middle of winter she might go 2-3 months between, & honestly she's a teeny bit tubby
I have a Philips spotlight over one end of the tank on a timer 0700-1900 dailiy. Night time drops to ambient, except in the middle of winter where there is an oil heater in the room (it's our lounge room) & the auto tempertaure on the oil heater is set & keeps the room just a little bit warm.
You don't need to be super precise with all of this, think of these snakes in the wild. They don't have regulated feeds or temperatures or heaters on at night. Just try to roughly keep within the general paramters of QLD weather

 

[SteveB]

I live in Sydney so It can get pretty cold, I have a 32c heat mat around on 24/7 for my Antaresia but I was thinking about getting a ceramic heat emitter that goes on at night just to make sure ambient temps don't drop too low - vets orders not to let her brumate this year because she needs to lose some weight

What are your thoughts on night temps and what set up you have for winter? Do you just let ambient temps drop to whatever and keep the heat mats as the only heat source? do you prefer CHE for winter or do you use a combo? If anyone has any thoughts/wants to share your set ups I'd be keen to know, thanks guys!

I'm confused, don't brumate to lose weight, not brumating is in other words, keep feeding

 

[Tsuchinoko]

I'm confused, don't brumate to lose weight, not brumating is in other words, keep feeding

I think the rationale was to not let her metabolism slow but I honestly didn't ask, maybe I should have

 

[sherlock]

What temp at night? It's an interesting question. I asked myself that too, when I first got my snake. At first I thought, never allow the temp to go below roughtly 20 degrees. But my snake is a BHP from WA. Although the desert is hot during the day, I knew that at night the temperatures can go down to about 5 degrees in winter and occasionaly you can get frost. I got that info from the weather bureau website. And even if a BHP is underground the temp I guessed would occasionaly go down to less than 10 degrees. Then I stopped worrying about temp. Except when the temp goes below 10 degrees in Melboune, I just keep an eye on the temp, to make sure the heat lamp is working. Hope this helps. He seems to be quite happy. At times, even in winter he wants to come out and explore even though outside temp is about 15 degrees.

And I noticed that my snake sleeps more when the temp is lower, to reduce energy use I assume.