Temp Issue/Digestion - Help please!

[Emily1188]

ARGH, the UTH on my teeny tiny little hatcling's terrarium came unplugged, presumably sometime last night. I found it unplugged this morning, and the tank was a chilly 71 all round. That was her second night of digestion - meaning I fed her on Wednesday night. Do you think the low temp affected her digestion? I know that with temps too cold, the meal can sit in their stomach and decay... Obviously, I've plugged the UTH back in, and the tank temp is now back where it usually is - 75 on one side, about 82 on the other.

Is she going to be ok? :(

[Checkerbelly]

82 isn't too shabby but the snake should have a way to get its body temp up to the mid 80's.

I doubt your snake will have any problems. What happens in the wild? The temperature drops at night anyway. As long as it's not cold for a few days I think you're OK.

[Emily1188]

*phew* Ok!

Usually the tank temp is higher (84, pretty consistently) on the warm side. It may have risen further since I last checked, now that the heater has been on for a while.

Thanks, Checkerbelly!

[Nanci]

Hopefully you'll be lucky. My Eastern Hognose hasn't had a UTH since September- she lives in a hospital cage on the kitchen stove. I wasn't feeding her for a while, because of no heat, but I finally had to start after her weight dropped 25%. She's been fine for countless meals.

[Mr.AJ]

Had a similiar problem myself this morning.. electricity went off during the night and didnt find out until the morning - by which time chompys tank was down to a worrying 14 degree's c (About 57f)

[Nanci]

Yeah, I keep my house thermostat at 66F so I don't freeze anyone if their UTH failed. Although now an alarm would go off when the temp reached, depending on the viv, 75 or 70. But if you don't have a spare UTH laying around, what are you going to do anyway...

[Weebonilass]

Yeah, I keep my house thermostat at 66F so I don't freeze anyone if their UTH failed. Although now an alarm would go off when the temp reached, depending on the viv, 75 or 70. But if you don't have a spare UTH laying around, what are you going to do anyway...


Break out the hand warmer thingies. I was on the verge of putting mine in their critter keepers and bringing them to bed with me last year when we lost power. Fortunately, I share a power grid with the police dept & EMR dept, so we were back up and runniing within a couple of hours, but at the very next show they were selling the warming packs and I bought a number of them to keep on hand... just in case.

[Weebonilass]

Forgot to mention that my girl always goes up into her swing when she's put back in her tank , which is approx 72 - 75 degrees or cooler (the thermo is down at floor level), with the exception of about 10 min that she spends in the log over the flexwatt tape section, but that's more because that's the first hide available when she slides out of her feeding cage. I'd be more concern about it if the temps dropped below the 70s into the 60s or lower myself.

Kieran, my big guy, also tends to prefer the cooler side after a meal, but at 6 yrs old, I don't think the temps would affect hims as quickly as it might a younger one.