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Help with humidity and feeding

W

waddlecaudle

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Alright so I moved to Colorado from North Carolina, got my first reptile out here (a beautiful male TSK axanthic) and found my first two issues. First, coming from NC, humidity was never an issue with my lizards. My tegu's enclosure stayed at at least 60% humidity naturally, spraying to 80% would stay between 70-80% for a few hours at least. Out here, I can't get my snakes tank to stay above 50% to save my life. I have a humidifier in my room, set up a drip system in his tank (which I can only turn on so often to keep bacteria from forming in drip spots), and I spray him up to 80% at least once an hour. I have a large tank which he loves, and have cardboard blocking about 70% of the tank to still allow air flow and to keep humidity in at the same time. Any suggestions. The big issue is overnight, when he is active and I am asleep, his tank gets down to ~40% without me spraying and I know that is bad.

Secondly, the most common thing it seems with balls, is I can't get him to tag a f/t rat. Fresh killed isn't much of an option because the only place that sells them is rather far away. I can get him to investigate, but can't seem to make him want to strike even though you can tell he is hungry and is interested. It has been 2 months since he has eaten (which I know isn't huge for snakes since he is full grown and there are reports of them going up to a year without eating) but it isn't something I am excited about. I am currently thawing the rat in its bag on top of his tank to let the smell get to him, then I am heating water up to a simmer and letting the rat soak for ~20 minutes. My infared thermometer says that the outside body temperature of the rat is 90-100 degrees, which should be plenty of heat to get him tagging it. I have tried white and black rats alike with the same result. He used to not even be interested but at least now he is checking it out. Any ideas?

Thanks for all the help everyone, try to give the best living environment possible. Snakes are new to me and so is the area. My tegu had good humidity naturally, as stated above, and it was hard to keep him from eating everything, no food manipulation necessary :)
 
From what I've been reading and have found myself over the years of keeping different snakes is the humidity has little to no effect on their feeding habits. I've moved from the deserts of NM to the high humidity of GA and TX and they kept eating w/o the slightest hesitation. I'm learning that some ball pythons can just be very very tricky to get to switch over to f/t. I have 2 girls right now that refuse! Same thing, one shows interest, but nada. I'm just gonna keep trying and trying :)
 
Okay you keep him in a tank right? This is what I did for my pet only snakes and I live in az so it should be fine for you. Take a towel. Cover 90% of the top of it with the towel (keep the towel folded as much as possible you want the extra thick padding on top not the towel hanging over the sides). Now I would put in the hottest water possible and put the bowl on the covered side of the tank. Keep an eye on your snake, make sure he doesn't try to soak himself for at least 30 mins til the water cools. I did this every 3 days and the tank stayed humid.
 
Oh yea!!

As far as feeding, keep trying the f/t he may not wanna eat cause he wants to breed. But check your local CL for a feeder rat breeder.
 
Also If u put the water dish directly over the heat pad, (If u use a heat pad which is recommended for balls,) and block off most of the tank on top u shouldnt have any problems keeping humidity. But u will have to check daily and fill his water dish. Also on the feeding, balls are tricky and certainly have their doubts about eating sometimes. Lets hope all mine eat as Im about ready to feed. Main thing is persistance, but paitence, always offer f/t then give them a live if they refuse, then after a while if they stick to that pattern and dont switch, offer a frozen then another frozen or f/k. But once u get them on f/t dont feed them live again, made that mistake once, wont do it again... lol
 
Fantastic advice guys and I will try it all. Last night the wind was howling here and I noticed it was blowing through my window, meaning its not sealed. That would certainly seem to decrease the humidity in the room since it is so dry outside. On the feeding end, is there any way, other than wiggling the prey, to intice him to strike since he is obviously hungry/interested. I didn't think about the breeding aspect of it, the guy I got him from did breed him so it would be natural for him to lay off a bit. Thanks so much everyone and any more advice would be appreciated.
 
With feeding I would try setting the prey in the tank just outta site, like on the other side of the water dish. And then use tweezers, hook, back a pen or whatever u can to make the prey "crawl"to him throw a live in there and just watch it get close to ur snake. Try to mimic what it does when u offer the frozen crawler. It'll try to run away but watch how it stops and goes. And instead of making the frozen run away, make it run to ur snake obviously. Do quick lil wiggles to simulate it cleaning its mouth and such. Expirement and see what works. Good luck!
 
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