I'm afraid I'm not much help because I also heard that Indigos prefer it cooler, but perhaps 70F is too cool. 80F would still be pretty cool compared to Floridian temps, so maybe the vet is correct. I use a 100W spotlight bulb on a dimmer stat with all my snakes, so that's personally what I'd do if I had an Indigo.

You'd get WAY more replies if you posted this in the normal snake forum though. This sub forum is for caresheets really, so you might not get many people seeing your post here.

 

indigos can be lazy in rgds to temperature, their ideal temperature, the one they will sit on all day, for days at at time is @80of, but as i said they have a tendency to be lazy and u have to force them to thermoregulate and therefore exercise, so i would use 83/84 maximum, and how u achieve this is up to u and what setup of u have, as indigos typically have, or should have, large caging this makes both air heating and pad heating possible, i would use whatever u wish to heat the air at one end only obviously, ceramics, reptile radiators whatever, i would set them to heat during the day only and off at night if the room with the cage is 20oc or above, i would set the air heating to 78-80of maximum. again making sure all the heat, pads and ceramics are at one end of the cage, the same end obviously.

now the pad should be set to 83/84 and left on all the time, ie day and night, 83-84 is at the edge of comfortable for an indigo even an indigo that's digesting food but its low enough to allow several hours at least of resting, more if digesting, but its just high enough to make it get restless and eventually leave, and this is what ur looking for, the behavior of going from the heat to the cool end on a regular basis, more time will be spent at the heated end after feeding and more time will be spent at the cooler end when empty, shedding etc.

if u see ur indigo spending all of its time at the hot end, tweak ur stats up a tickle, if u see it spending all of its time in the cold end tweak it down a tickle, if a percentage would help id say roughly 65% of the time on the heat if its feeding ok, and the other 35% cooling down, again if regularly feeding, not being cooled for breeding or off food for whatever reason.


this is the basic behavior u want to try and encourage and one that leads to a content and healthy animal and a happy keeper at the end of the day.

enjoy ur indigo, u have the best species in gods creation.

rgds
ed

ps regarding which stat i recommend pulse stats for both ceramics and mats, i would put the mat under the cage on a sheet of polystyrene then the mat heats the cage floor and therefore the snake. i always fix the mat's probe inside the cage, on the floor right above the mats position obviously, fix it well so the snake cant possibly move it, duct tape is quite good because indigos like it dry (duct tape tends to lift in moist cages) cut pieces neatly and fix the probe neatly making sure all the tape is well rubbed down, u can also use glues, like hot glue and silicone sealant, hot glue requires no airing or curing time, pracrically drying and hardening instantly, wheras sealant needs curing time during which the snake cant go back in the cage so its not so useful for retrofitting probes in occupied cages. in dry cages, gorilla brand duck tape (ebay) is very good, easy to replace if pooped on and cheap to get.

 

To celebrate the 10 year anniversary of this question lol and the fact that I stumbled upon this by chance I’ll weigh in and I hope y’all don’t mind me reviving an old thread. I, too, have an indigo and I totally get your frustration. While I do think it’s good that you’ve covered your bases with a warm and cool hide, I’d personally be concerned with the heat mat. In the wild snakes go into borrows to escape heat so I personally don’t use heat pads at all (especially bc they can burrow the point of getting burned). My exotic vet echoes this line of thinking. And bc indigos are crazy about heat I might be a bit concerned about it being trapped in a hide (even though I know heat pads aren’t generally crazy hot provided you regulate). My instant thought was that if it’s in hide for security but feeling a bit toasty then it could go off food. But you’ve given it options so maybe not. My other thoughts as to why it might be off feed are 1. What season is it? If it’s winter and/or it’s feeling frisky it could be a seasonal shut down or a breeding thing. My guy went off feed for 2 months and I was “trippin’ balls”. You might also consider switching up the food source. When rats get refused I either scent the food item (rub it) with something new and exciting (ie: frog legs) or just straight up feed it something new altogether. Quail. Frog. Salmon. Anything really lol. As for the thermostat you def want a good proportional and not an on/off box. Herpstats are an investment albeit a very good one. I’m pretty sure you’ve probably figured this out in a decade but it helps me to chime in anyway and who knows who else may stumble across this feed in the future. Some knowledge is outdated but all knowledge and opinions are valuable. Cheers guys! Happy Indigo-ing!