When your snake eats, it will greatly improve his/her wellbeing if it has a nice warm belly heat area to warm up on for digestion. Overhead heat helps some but the snakes body will shade it's own underside and it doesn't take long for the substrate under the snake to become cool. In the wild, the sun bakes large rocks and unfortunately, asphalt (hence all the once slithery, now dried up roadkill). There are 3 basic reasons why this is sufficient in the wild but not in captivity. 1- The sun doesn't stay fixed onto one spot all day. The changing angle of the rays helps. 2- The snake can easily move around on the basking spot it finds as often as is needed. If your cage is large enough to install a rotating earth -sun type relationship complete with large sections of paved roads and dried rocky creek beds...go for it and please take lots of pictures. and last but not least... 3- God didn't install UTH pads under the dirt where all the snakes live so heat from overhead is all they have to work with in nature. He also doesn't deworm them and freeze and thaw their food for them either to keep them healthy but I'll be danged if some smart people way before any of us figured out a really long time ago that there are things we can do for our pets that nature apparently never thought of.
Sorry if I seem sarcastic. I'm just in a really odd mood tonight lol...maybe something to do with all the flexaril and vicoden I'm on right now.
