So when I drink water I always like cold water even if I’m in a cold environment. But that makes sense because I’m a warm blooded creature.
On the other hand snakes are cold blooded and they require external warmth so I could see them prefering warm drinking water. At the same time though, in a natural environment any water they drank would be cooler than the air so maybe cooler water would feel more normal. Also in a properly setup terarium a snake has ample access to warmth from other sources so they don’t really need the additional heat from warm drinking water so maybe having cool water would be a nice change and allow better temp regulation. But warm water also has the side benefit of helping boost humidity.
Anyways, this is just what I decided to overthink today. I’m also not talking actually hot or cold, just lukewarm or cool. What do you all think? Would my pet snake prefer to have their water dish topped up with cool or warm water?
mortimer@lemmy.world 3 days ago
I can see an experiment coming on. Give your snake two dishes and see which it prefers.
Canonical_Warlock@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 days ago
I have been thinking that all day. But to do it properly I need a bigger terrarium and some more supplies. You can’t have the dishes be different sizes or that’s an additional variable. But I also want to keep a big enough dish that they can soak in it. The never actually do because I keep the humidity high enough but they chould still have the option.
So I need to have a large terrarium with several identical water basins all in the same area. 3 basins would work (warm, room temp, and cool) but ideally I would have several set to various specific temps. Each basin should be able to be heated and cooled to reach a set water temp and which basin has which temp of water needs to be shuffled ocasionally to eliminate selection based on exact basin location or similar variables. That heating and cooling could easily be acheived with a peltier module and a temp sensor on each basin linked to a controller. You would also need a camera to view which basin the snake actually uses.
Of course I already know what would happen. I would spend a couple hundred dollars setting all that up only to learn that my single braincell possessing snake would only ever use the closest basin.
FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 3 days ago
for the record, if you happen to be near a zoo with a snake house (or that has snakes,) you could probably ask the zookeeper. If they didn’t know already they have snakes and probably wouldn’t mind setting that up. (they also probably have multiple identical dishes and such like.)
well. I suppose that could be an email, if you happen to be not close. But if you are, I’ve never met a zookeeper that didn’t love to talk about their animals and answer random questions like that.
Iheartcheese@lemmy.world 3 days ago
OP PLZ
lordnikon@lemmy.world 3 days ago
A few more variables to think about is you would have to keep the heated water at that warmer temperature the whole time. Plus also noting the ambient temperature to graph with each event.
Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca 3 days ago
I agree; only one good way to find out.
idunnololz@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Yeha but it would be a sample size 1 study :/
Iheartcheese@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Op plz