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Humidity conundrum!

J

Jolly Ollie

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I have a fairly large enclosure for my 6 mo. old male ball. It is around 18 in. by 36 in. and around 18 in. high. I have kept a large, open bowl of water in there, as well as frequent misting and replace a damp towel over half of the screened cover several times a day. I still haven't been able to get the humidity up to where it should be. It hovers around only 30% and may climb to 40%, if I'm lucky. Needless to say, this isn't helping with a good shed. I am going to soak him longer in water this next time and follow some good advice of following this with a firm slide through a damp towel. I'm hoping this will help but I am still baffled on how to get that dag nab humidity up :shrug01: ! If anyone could give some advice or ideas, I would welcome the help!
 
1- cover all but a 1/2 inch strip along the top of the tank.
2- provide a humid hide when he goes into shed.

That should do the trick; Good Luck! -Deb
 
Jolly Ollie said:
If anyone could give some advice or ideas, I would welcome the help!
Click to expand...

You can add a good sized aquarium with an open top into your snake room if the room is not real large. I added 2-40 gallon breeders in a small room and that upped the humidity big time, Good luck. :)
 
Elizabeth,

A few questions first....how do you heat the enclosure, and what are your temps at? The method of heating and temps can have an effect on how best to control the humidity. Also, what do you use for a substrate? Some substrates such as cypress mulch seem to work really well to keep humidity up, while some almost seem to dry things out. Also, where do you set the water dish?

Covering almost the entire screen top with something like plexiglass (even plastic wrap or tin foil will work, but isn't nearly as aesthetically pleasing, lol) will help also, just covering half of it really won't do much good. Leave just enough space for a bit of air flow.

Humid hides will help with some snakes, but I feel that maintaining the proper humidity throughout the enclosure at all times is much healthier and less stressful for the animal than switching a hide in and out or having to dampen it regularly.
 
Covering the screen top to raise humidity is not the answer, ventilation with BP's is important to help prevent respiratory problems and no or little ventilataion can cause that.

Putting a humidifer in the room will probably solve your problem.

I wish you well with what ever you choose to do. :)
 
Hey thanks for all this help! I have been using Aspen substrate so will be picking up some cypress tomorrow. Also, damp towels and covering most of the top has helped - it is now up to about 60-65% humidity consistently. The temps range from 80 on one side to about 88 on the other. My house tends to be pretty dry until about May which will solve the problem for a while but come fall I think I will need to add a humidifier (it is a small room) as well as radiant heat - which I know very little about. Is radiant heat adjustable and consistent? Also, what about the nice wood table his enclosure is on; will it damage the wood? Do BP's prefer a dimly lit enclosure as opposed to the blaring light bulb from above? I am getting the idea this is the case. . . You guys are the best - thanks! :thumbsup:
 
Heating the enclosure with overhead lighting is a huge culprit in drying out the enclosure, and Ball Pythons do seem to definitely prefer things darker.

The best option, IMO, is to use an undertank heater (UTH), which must be run through a thermostat of some kind to keep the temps at the proper level. You simply stick it to the underside of the tank, off to one side to allow the snake to thermoregulate. They will supply some little rubber "feet" things that you put on the bottom of the tank to lift it up off the surface it is sitting on, to allow a small amount of airflow underneath, which prevents to UTH from overheating, and keeping it up off from the table underneath. I do have a couple of these in use, and have never had an issue with them doing any harm to the surfaces the enclosures were sitting on, and as long as you have them thermostatically controlled, I wouldn't think you should have any kind of issues.

I have had some humidity issues myself this past winter, and ended up experimentally trying a BUNCH of different substrates. some were better than others, but in my trials, the cypress mulch was definitely the best for humidity. You can soak it before adding it to the enclosure if it seems dry, just drain and squeeze any excess water out of it before putting it in.
 
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