Hot in Here: How Temperature Affects Pet Reptiles and Amphibians
- Dallas Duncan
- Jul 24
- 4 min read
When it comes to caring for exotic pets like reptiles and amphibians, habitat settings are key to ensuring their wellbeing and positive health status. But picking the right settings for each pet can be finicky, says Dr. Preston Russell, DVM, a veterinarian at Comer Veterinary Hospital who specializes in exotic animal care.
“There are so many reptile species and amphibian species out there that require vastly different environments,” Russell says. “You have some reptiles that are tropical, so they need not necessarily a higher temperature, but a more steady temperature and also humidity. Then you have the desert dwellers that require no humidity, but super-high temperatures for basking and things like that.”
He says researching and speaking with reputable breeders, such as those who attend Repticon in the Atlanta area, are great resources for exotic and potential exotic pet owners. Russell cautions against relying on internet search sources alone, and says chain pet stores may not always be staffed with exotic experts, even though they have reptiles and amphibians for sale. Incorrect information can result in the wrong habitat settings, which could lead to a host of health problems, like dysecdysis, or problems with shedding, Russell says.
“If the containment is not at proper humidity, then they do not shed completely or fully,” says Jessica Morris, Comer Vet practice manager and licensed veterinary technician. “It’s better for the humidity to be high enough or adequate enough to where they shed in one whole piece.”
Otherwise, pieces of the shed could be retained and lead to health issues, she says.
To avoid concerns like this, Russell advises pet owners to look into some of the enclosure sensors that are connected to phone or website apps for monitoring.
“You can set parameters, like if it gets below this temperature it alerts you, or if it goes above this temp, if the humidity falls, all of that,” he says.
If app subscriptions or sophisticated monitoring systems are outside a pet parent’s budget, Russell says temperature guns checked several times a day can provide similar insight for a lower cost. He says parents of Comer Vet exotic patients are welcome to bring in photos of their pets’ enclosures during appointments for consultation. The clinic staff advises aspiring exotic pet parents to not get their reptile or amphibian until they’ve done plenty of research beforehand.
“Make sure that you’re invested,” Morris says. “Don’t just get it and put it in a tank and put it on your dresser. They do take work; it’s not just an ornament.”
When Settings Go Awry
“Every day, a couple times a day, you’re checking to make sure that you have the proper basking area for higher temperatures, and lower temperatures on the low [areas] so it can get away from the heat,” Morris says. “The fluorescent lighting that we use also expires. It’ll still light up, but it’s not necessarily giving the proper UVB, so we have to make sure we monitor that too, or at least change it frequently.”
The other key to proper enclosure settings is knowing how pets act. Morris, for example, knows when her ball python is about to shed because she exhibits certain behavior patterns and lethargy, and vet assistant Brittany Findley can tell something might need to be changed when one of her snakes begins incessantly circling his tank.
“You always have to take account of the outside temperature, because it does make it harder to regulate and control your inside temperature,” Morris says.
She found this out recently from a pet owner perspective. Her Russian tortoise, Oogway, wasn’t acting himself, at just about the same time as Morris was turning her air conditioning up to combat the heat wave outside.
“He stopped eating and he was sleeping a lot more. I think the temperature of my house being really cold threw off the temperature of his area, too, and it forced him into a hibernation, almost,” Morris says.
Cold temperatures can slow exotic pets down, but too much heat can also cause problems.
“One No. 1 rule is do not use the heat stones,” Russell says. “Because they are reptiles, they will literally lay there and burn and not move.”
He and Morris liken this to humans laying out at the beach, not realizing just how crispy their suntan is getting until they’re already red.
“The way [reptiles’ and amphibians’] neuro system works, they don’t realize it’s painful until it’s too late,” Russell says. “A frog will jump into boiling water, realize it’s hot and jump out. But if you put them in cold water and heat it up to boiling, he’ll never move because they get used to those temperature gradients going up. If they’re basking on that rock, it just keeps heating, keeps heating, keeps heating.”
This nearly happened to Findley.
“The other day, it was set up underneath the snake’s heat lamp and it was like, 114 degrees,” she says. “I had to swap the bulb out to a lower wattage bulb. I could have cooked my snake if I didn’t catch it.”
An alternative Russell suggests is to place heat mats under the enclosure and fill the area with enough substrate to prevent pets from laying directly on the heating coils.
“They don’t have heatstroke or heat stress like a cat or dog would, or a large mammal, so they don’t really respond that same way. But there are cases where temperature does affect them,” Russell says.
Emergency temperature-related situations for exotic pets include temperatures getting too low, when pets need to be warmed back up before their metabolism is negatively affected, and overheating to the point of sustaining burns, such as what can happen with heat stones or the wrong heat lamp settings. Comer Veterinary Hospital offers work-in daytime emergency services for exotics as well as small animals.
Interested in scheduling a veterinary appointment for your reptile or amphibian? Please give us a call at 706-783-5111 or request an appointment through our online form.
