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Comment by bigwavedave | Hacker News Reader

The only thing that gets me out of bed is the day/night cycle bulbs my snake needs. I know I can automate turning off the night light and turning on the day bulb, but if I don't automate then I know she's depending on me when my alarm goes off so I have to physically get up, walk to the other room, and flip a couple switches. On my way back, it's very easy for me to sit down at the counter and eat the sandwich I made the night before for breakfast.

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Have you tried switching places with the snake? You may want to set up automation first as you could find the snake not pushing the light button reliably every morning.

Gradually dimming the bedroom light with a warm color temperature helps me get tired in the evening, and fading it in to a cold color temperature in the morning helps me wake up.

While I understand the point you want to make, the temperature in her tank is the same whether I flip the switches or not- so worst case scenario if I'm dead and don't flip the switches, she has to make do with ambient light from my window instead of light from a bulb directly overhead. This is in fact very safe for the snake, but still enough of a motivation for me.

"temperature" in that comment is referring to the light - different colored lighting can affect your mood and energy levels. An introduction to color temperature here - https://drawpaintacademy.com/what-is-color-temperature/

No disagreement here, but that has nothing to do with putting myself in the snake's metaphorical shoes. The comment I was replying to implied that since I don't automate the flipping of the switches, I risked her health or well-being because of the risk of not doing it manually for some reason. I wanted to reassure him that she's still perfectly safe and that the temperature in her tank (which is the reason for these bulbs. Ball pythons don't need specific types of light to be healthy) would remain constant even if I die and can't flip the switches. So, there's minimal risk to her health and it still is a strong enough motivator that I haven't missed a single morning in the 8 months I've had her. That's all I was saying.

What kind of snake do you keep?

She's a ball python! Just barely a year old and the sweetest noodle. She just barely became big enough for a 40 gallon tank.

Sounds cool.

She is the best pet I've ever had. Very low-maintenance, doesn't musk, doesn't make noise in the middle of the night, and still shows/craves affection. Did you know snakes yawn? I sure didn't until I got her! Owning a snake has opened my eyes to a lot of amazing things about them :).

Good info. No, I did not know that. Do you know about the Chennai Snake Park? It was founded by an American, Romulus Whitaker. I've been to it.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chennai_Snake_Park

That sounds like an amazing experience! I didn't know about it, but now it's on my list.

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