Is heat necessary for proper digestion??

[katkrazy2007]

This may seem like an ameteur question, but I've had different people tell me different things and I'd like to get it straight.. Is heat after feeding necessary for proper digestion for my corn snake? She has heat readily available on her warm side to warm up after a meal (which she normally will bask after eating). I use a 40W red heat bulb and she loves to lay under it to warm up. I know lizards need the heat to digest, but I was never sure about corns.

The heat is available and she does seem to bask for a while right after eating, but is it something that helps them digest? Or is she just enjoying the warmth coincidentally after eating? I've just been thinking about this topic lately and would like to hear everyone else's take on this question. Please and thanks!! (:

[newbie319]

I believe heat is necessary for digestion. My baby corn regurged her mouse and after bringing it up on here, I concluded it was because her temps dropped for a couple hours. The dimmer switch just quit working and wasn't allowing her light to stay on. Since then I got a thermostat and it keeps the temps at just the right temperature. Now I bought a rack system that has heat tape, since I heard snakes need belly heat not air heat.

[Teatime]

Yes, heat is necessary for digesting food. The only time owners might not have a heat source is if the animal is in "cooling" where they don't eat for a period of time to prepare for the breeding season, or if they only turn on the heat when the snake is digesting, or if their room is kept at a warm enough temperature all the time.

[bitsy]

Heat is necessary at all times. Cold blooded animals need to thermoregulate and to do this, they need warm and cool areas to move between. Heat is vital for digestion, but that's not its only function. If Corns get too cool in the winter, they can go into brumation (their version of hibernation) in which all body functions and organs become semi-dormant. This is fine if it's planned and many people deliberately brumate their Corns. However it takes preparation and if the Corn gets too cool for any length of time whilst it still has food in its system, the food can rot inside it.

For Corns, you need a warm end where the floor surface (the part that the snake is in contact with most) around 85 and a cool end floor in the low-mid 70s. I tend to avoid worrying about the air temp above floor level, as the snake isn't up there. Depends where you live as to how easy it is to achieve that kind of heat gradient. With the combination of a hot US summer and powercuts which took out AC, many folks have had trouble keeping their Corns cool enough. There are also people who keep Corns in heated reptile rooms, with no heat gradient (and that's air rather than belly heat). Having said that, I've always used belly heat myself and that seems to be the most common technique for those with less than a room-ful of beasties! Corns are pretty bombproof but when in doubt, it's overly high temps (90+) which seem more dangerous than the cooler end of the range.

As far as digestion goes, both too cool OR too hot can cause problems including regurgitation.