My room is hot! (I got a thermometer w/probe today)

[cohazard]

I bought a thermometer today and was disappointed that it only measures humidity where the unit is, not through the probe, but from what I've read, those cheap stick-on hygrometers work fine.

Anyways, I've been worried that my room is too hot for a cornsnake, and the thermometer confirms my fears. SoCal is going through a heatwave right now, and my apartment has the worst AC unit known to man. It keeps you cool if you sit on the couch in front of it, which is pointless because I rarely leave the soft comforting glow of my monitor

The cold air doesn't reach my bedroom without some tricky fan placement :grin01:

We rarely use the AC unit anywyas to save on power, but I always have a fan going in my room when I'm home.

The ambient room temperature right now (12:18 am in socal) is 88.7F :awcrap:

I'm getting a 40g breeder cage this saturday, and I'm guessing that the temps will be slightly higher in the cage because of the glass keeping in the warmth? My hope is that with a moist hide, or a large enough water bowl, the snake can keep itself cool by chilling in the water, but I wonder if it can spend too much time in the water? I don't want the poor thing to get all prune-like

I'm also confused about the readings on the thermometer. They are consistently a degree off, even when side by side. wtf mate? :shrugs:

Your help with these issues is greatly appreciated


here's a pic of my unit

 

[desertanimal]

I live in AZ, and it's that hot in my study where I keep my snakes, too. It's not that hot all day, but I'm sure it gets that hot. It's not that hot at the thermostat, but the thermostat is not on the west-facing wall of the house, and the study is.

I wouldn't worry about it too much as long as you've got a nice big water bowl for your snake. I don't use heat at all in the summer, and my snakes therefore have no gradient. They get one when it starts to cool off and I turn the heat tape back on.

If you are worried about it, you can always make sure your viv has good airflow (a fan), and a big water bowl, and the evaporation will bring down the temp of your viv.

No two thermometers and no two tire pressure gauges I have give the same reading. I guess if you want something more accurate, you probably have to use those laser thermometers. Dunno. Fortunately, cornsnakes are pretty forgiving (compared to, say, seahorses, which I used to keep), and I don't worry about a few degrees unless it comes down to approaching 90F for reproducing animals or eggs.

 

[cohazard]

Cool, thanks for the advice, that will help me sleep better once I get a snake.

I had thought about putting a fan over the viv, but I was worried about decreasing humidity too much.

I supposed the evaporating water would cause humidity as well.

I knew I wasn't going to need a heat sorce which is convenient, but I know it gets 90F plus in here during the day.

 

[desertanimal]

Definitely keep it under 90 if you can. I get those really cheap thermometers with probes at home depot that record the min and max temp. so that I can check what it was while I wasn't home. That's a nice feature when you can't be home to monitor every hour and you're trying to find out about temps.

I also don't worry too much about humidity except around shedding time, but now that I keep my snakes in racks, I don't worry about it ever.

 

[cohazard]

Thankfully there's plenty of time before that show you told me about so I have time to get the environment right in the viv before I have a snake.

The unit I bought has the same min/max feature, so I look forward to testing it out tomorrow. I guess it'll be best to test it this weekend when I setup the viv.

I really appreciate your help

 

[Nanci]

What is the temp at floor level? Usually that is considerably cooler- five degrees or so.

 

[cohazard]

I guess my whole room is an oven haha I set the probe on the floor and the temp held steady. :awcrap:

 

[cohazard]

Okay this isn't good.

I checked the recorded high and low on the thermometer and while I was at work, the temp peaked at 93F :awcrap:

I have it on the floor right now (since I"m keeping the viv on the floor) and it's at 90F at 9:23pm!!! My room is hot, even I'm not 100% comfortable.

I stuck the probe in a bowl of water I left sitting on the floor to see what temps the water bowl in my snakes viv will reach, and it dropped to 82F which is okay, but that tells me my snake will have to spend almost all of it's time in the water bowl just to be somewhat comfortable.

Will being in it's water bowl all day harm the snake?

I turned on a fan and pointed it at the probe, and it's still 90F

I gotta admit, I'm getting discouraged. What can I do to keep the viv cool in this oven I call a bedroom.

 

[Sarynkitamo]

Are you allowed/able to have the snake in another, cooler room perhaps?

 

[cohazard]

No I can't

It took a long discussion and explaining of how safe corn snakes are with children to get my fam. comfortable with having a snake in the house.

I placed the thermometers probe under the stand of my aquarium but still nothing.

But I've got an idea. I will keep the vivarium in the stand of my aquarium, and I'll have to keep a small fan or two running in there all day while the temp is insane, and see if the enclosed space with a fan running can keep the temps cooler.

This is frustrating haha through all of the reading I've done about keeping cornsnakes, everything mentions the importance and methods of keeping the snakes viv warm, but I've yet to come across how to 'cool' your viv haha :awcrap:

 

[Sarynkitamo]

I had the same problem when I had Jazz in my room. I like to keep it toasty warm, even during the summer and especially during the winter. I know she'll be moving to my room during the wintertime, though.

Right now she's hanging out in my relatively unused dining room. Although my mom isn't fond of snakes, she lets me get away with it. I assume you still live at home? What kind of 'children' are present in the house? Younger siblings?

Hope things work out for you.

 

[cohazard]

Wish my family were as compromising as yours haha

It's a long story but my sister and her family (my brother-in-law and my 3yr old nephew) decided to share an apartment to combat the high cost of living here in socal. This is our first time 'living on our own' away from our parents, and it's been great so far.

I could live by myself in a studio in a shady part of town, but then I probably wouldn't be able to afford any hobbies or pets haha. c'est la vie I guess.

 

[Sarynkitamo]

Lol. My dad was initially not so happy. Hated snakes. But he was sick when I got her and, unfortunately, passed away shortly after. I kept her secret from him for a few days, and told him about her when he called from Victoria to tell me how he was doing. You would not believe how much he pestered me about having a snake in 'his house' and the different ways he was going to deal with it when he got home.

I'd say let them adjust for a bit to having a snake in the house, then take a small step to test their comfort levels. Like taking it out of it's viv and handling it. ^_^

 

[cohazard]

yes! you read my mind! :grin01:

I've been planning to let them show it off carrying it around my neck here and there to get them over the squeamishness and to show them it's not aggressive and what not.

Then their curiosity will kick in and they'll eventually want to touch it, then carry it, the muaahahha I'll have it's viv in the living room where it's cooler haha

hopefully I can manage to keep it alive in the hot temps first though

 

[cohazard]

oh btw, sorry to hear about your dad

glad he stood his ground and didn't make it easy on you though haha

 

[Sarynkitamo]

Lol! I actually thought he'd be fine with it and my mom would be the hard sell! She just said 'fine. It's your money'. I'm a horrible child for going up to the hospital to ask him, then buying her anyway!

 

[cohazard]

Okay, I'm going to experiment today.

I'm running a fan in my window all day and will be running my aquariums at low power (lights off) to save on energy for this experiment.

It does feel cooler than usual in here, and so far the temp is holding at 84.9 when it's usually 87 by now.

I may invest in an AC unit, or a dual fan that I can place in the window.

Someone on general reptile board suggested I look into California natives such as kings or milks.

That may be my last resort, but I really want a sunglow amel

 

[Nanci]

You can buy a little window air conditioner pretty cheaply. I'm running a portable AC out in my living room, where all the snakes are, as well as the central air. It was nice and cool when I got home yesterday! Some other things that helped me are putting outside sun screens over the windows, and keeping the blinds closed and having dark curtains over them, and closing the storm windows.

When it's hot in your room, is it hotter outside or inside?

 

[cohazard]

You can buy a little window air conditioner pretty cheaply. I'm running a portable AC out in my living room, where all the snakes are, as well as the central air. It was nice and cool when I got home yesterday! Some other things that helped me are putting outside sun screens over the windows, and keeping the blinds closed and having dark curtains over them, and closing the storm windows.

When it's hot in your room, is it hotter outside or inside?

At night it's hotter inside, during the day it's hotter outside.



Thank you for the additional tips, depending on how today's experiment goes, I may invest in a small portable AC, or build one of these.

 

[jpccusa]

Hello Cohazard
I used to have the same problem at my house, where the temperature outside was around 75 and inside was almost 90.
The way I solved this problem was to buy 2 box fans and place them on a window, facing in. The fans will draw cold air in and push warm air out.

You can also do the opposite if you decide the fans are too loud to be in your room. You can place the fans facing out in another area of the house (mine are in the living room) and open your window. Air will rush in through your room.

The beauty of living in the sunny state!