These temperature recommendations are specific to carpet pythons tho you can adapt them to any number of species
There are so many considerations to think about when deciding how you keep your snakes. Are you just going to have 1 or 2, or many. Are you willing to dedicate a room, or are just going to have them in a corner of your living room! If I had it my way I’d have a room for the majority and then instead of a tv, I’d have big naturalistic cages. However the wife thinks that would be to much. So the first thing I’m going to cover is the care of a carpet python, if you only 1-10 and can’t or won’t dedicate a room to them!
This method of keeping is going to be based off of human comfortable temps of 68-72 in the house. With this method your going to have to have a hot spot of at least 90 in my experience, maybe over like 92-95. Just watch your snake and adjust (more on that later!) so the idea is to raise the ambient in the day time between 76-80, to accomplish this we need to think about heat retention, so glass tanks, and tubs (not racks, just tubs) are out as they don’t really retain heat all that well. Melamine is good, but heating can be a pain, and then there’s the fire aspect! Pvc is a good option, with a plethora of cage manufacturers to choose from, these retain heat well, and seem fire resistant (but double check with the manufacturer because I’m not sure in this,) also if you keep in racks, use fully enclosed racks as they retain heat better, and you should be able to operate at a lower hotspot and still be good that way. For caging, you’ll want to go with an over head heat type set up. I’m not sure what’s up with over head vs under tank, but over head seems to work better. They need lower basking temps and can loose heat at night without getting sick, under tank, in my experience seems to require that the heat be on 24/7 and also requires a much higher temp to make it work.
When setting up your thermostat, you want to make sure the probe is at the hottest point of the cage. That way you can control the hottest temp the snake can be exposed too. The snake will figure it out and adjust his position accordingly to maintain the right temperature. Tons of really good stats out there, I use rancos because I just don’t see the need to have “perfect 86.5 degree hot spot!” And I don’t see the need fora Proportional thermostat. However get what your comfortable with!
Now a little hit on hot spots. Your hot spot should be based off your snakes habits, not off a need to have a “perfect hotspot” according Facebook. If your snake spends all day basking, turn up the hot spot a bit, like a degree or 2, and watch!! If they never bask, turn it down and watch it again! Behavior should be non stressful looking, and they should use most of their cage. If they aren’t, then something needs to change. You should be in contact with a mentor of some kind to bounce ideas off of! They will also help calm your nerves if something is off. These guys are very tough, and really resilient.
