# Ball Pythons > BP Husbandry > Advanced BP Husbandry >  Dehydrated or shed???

## MrKai

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## MrKai

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## JodanOrNoDan

Rather than reply to your other post, i will just reply to this one. Snake looks dehydrated, possibly shedding and underfed. What is your setup? What is the humidity? The animal needs to get be put in a very humid environment quickly. A small tub with damp paper towels works. To hydrate you can also feed it a wet feeder. I am guessing you are using a heat lamp?

Checkout the care sheet section on this forum.

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_Dezoruba_ (08-08-2016)

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## MrKai

humidity stays at 60% and yes i am using a heat lamp. this morning i put her in a hot water container very humid and it seemed to help. but 2 hours later and this again. i have a heat lamp on top and a heating pad under the hide.

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## JodanOrNoDan

My bet is that your cage is not as humid as you think it is. Heat lamps suck moisture. Tanks which I also assume you are using are very hard to keep humid. Hopefully someone that uses tanks and lamps can jump on and help you. You can always make the animal a humid hide.

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_Dezoruba_ (08-08-2016)

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## MrKai

You think I should take off the lamp and just use the heating pad. I have a night lamp that came with the kit also. The one I'm using is for daytime supposedly. 

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## JodanOrNoDan

If your temps are ok, I would turn the lamps off. Cover as much of the top as you can with aluminum foil and dampen your substrate. The animal should probably be temporarily at close to 100% humidity until the problem goes away. I am not a "tank" expert though. I have always kept my animals in tubs where it is a lot easier to control humidity.

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MrKai (06-30-2016)

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## MrKai

I'm going to do that as well as figure out how to make a humidity hide

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## JodanOrNoDan

One more thing, make sure the substrate is clean. Damp plus feces makes a breeding ground for bacteria. If you have doubts about your substrate switch to damp paper towels at least temporarily.

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## MrKai

I never dampen the substrate before. Good tip. I need to change it planned on doing it tomorrow but will do it tonight.

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## chrid16371

Are you using a digital hygrometer? I figure I will ask questions that have to both with your problem and also other husbandry. Are you using a thermostat or dimmer to regulate your uth and heat bulb? Are you using a digital thermometer with probe? What kind of substrate do you use? Also bps don't need special day light, if you have to use a light just use the night one 24/7. 

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MrKai (06-30-2016)

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## MrKai

> Are you using a digital hygrometer? I figure I will ask questions that have to both with your problem and also other husbandry. Are you using a thermostat or dimmer to regulate your uth and heat bulb? Are you using a digital thermometer with probe? What kind of substrate do you use? Also bps don't need special day light, if you have to use a light just use the night one 24/7. 
> 
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I'm using an analog hygrom/thermom. It's cappy but it works for temp more than anything. Also it isn't a probe it is placed in the middle of the terarium. The uth is not regulated I always keep it on, it doesn't get extremely hot just warm to the touch and the substrate is aspen 1 to 2 inches. 1.5 inch on top of the uth. 

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## chrid16371

Unplug the uth immediately!! A uth MUST be regulated. If it's warm to the touch it is over 98 degrees and a bp should not touch anything over 94. Get a acurite 00891 it has a probe the goes under the substrate on top of glass where uth heats, that spot should never be over 9%  

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_O'Mathghamhna_ (06-30-2016)

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## MrKai

> Unplug the uth immediately!! A uth MUST be regulated. If it's warm to the touch it is over 98 degrees and a bp should not touch anything over 94. Get a acurite 00891 it has a probe the goes under the substrate on top of glass where uth heats, that spot should never be over 9%  
> 
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How hot should the uth be?? I'm about to go buy a probe thermometer and a real hygrom. I unplugged the uth. 

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## JodanOrNoDan

Read this http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ius)-Caresheet. All the answers are there.

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## chrid16371

Uth doesn't heat the air just the surface above it, that is why you want a probe thermometer under the substrate right on top the glass over the uth and it should be no hotter than 94. You can either buy a thermostat from amazon like the inkbird itc-308 for around $30 or if you want a nice proportional one a Herpstat 1 for $140 or a lamp dimmer will work but you will have to watch temp note closely bc it won't automatically adjust like a thermostat will so you would have to do it manually with a dimmer. I would use your night bulb 24/7 until you get a dimmer or thermostat, no need for the day bulb. Since you will have the uth unplugged until you get something to regulate it you will need to put your thermometer probe right on the ground on top of substrate where the center of the bulb beam hits and make sure it is no hotter than 92, you may have to raise or lower the light dome until you get it where it needs to be, around 88-90 is best. Once you get the thermostat or dimmer you will then move the probe under the substrate like I said before. I would recommend another thermometer for your cool side bc you need the temp there to stay between 78-82 but a little lower is ok but no lower than 75. You want not need the light once you have your uth regulated. The only reason you will need the light once you get your uth regulated is if your cool side is lower than 75 then you can put light on cool side and dim it to 80. 

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MrKai (06-30-2016)

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## MrKai

> Uth doesn't heat the air just the surface above it, that is why you want a probe thermometer under the substrate right on top the glass over the uth and it should be no hotter than 94. You can either buy a thermostat from amazon like the inkbird itc-308 for around $30 or if you want a nice proportional one a Herpstat 1 for $140 or a lamp dimmer will work but you will have to watch temp note closely bc it won't automatically adjust like a thermostat will so you would have to do it manually with a dimmer. I would use your night bulb 24/7 until you get a dimmer or thermostat, no need for the day bulb. Since you will have the uth unplugged until you get something to regulate it you will need to put your thermometer probe right on the ground on top of substrate where the center of the bulb beam hits and make sure it is no hotter than 92, you may have to raise or lower the light dome until you get it where it needs to be, around 88-90 is best. Once you get the thermostat or dimmer you will then move the probe under the substrate like I said before. I would recommend another thermometer for your cool side bc you need the temp there to stay between 78-82 but a little lower is ok but no lower than 75. You want not need the light once you have your uth regulated. The only reason you will need the light once you get your uth regulated is if your cool side is lower than 75 then you can put light on cool side and dim it to 80. 
> 
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Awesome!! Thank you very much for the info. I'm going to buy a ton of thermometers and a thermostat now lol. And a spay bottle for misting. I'm going to mist multiple times a day until I find the right humidity. I will also be making a humidity hide. I will update with pics after

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## chrid16371

Ok good! A lot of people don't know that heat devices need regulated bc employees and packaging on box stores uth don't say you do. I'm just glad I seen your thread so your snake doesn't get burned. Uth often run 120+ degrees that's why they must be regulated. If you are ordering thermometers I would recommend the acurite 00891, they are on amazon for $12 and you can put probe on hot side and the unit on cool side and it will give you your hot temp, cool temp, humidity all from one thermometer. A simple lamp dimmer will be enough for the heat bulb but like I said you may not even need the heat bulb once your uth is regulated. If your room temp where snake is below 75 at anytime you will need to use the night heat bulb with lamp dimmer. If your using a glass tank you can cover the whole screen with aluminium foil or cardboard or something and leave just enough room for heat lamp and it will help trap humidity. 

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## MrKai

I don't have a mailing address so I can't get anything online. But I belive petco has thermostats and thermometers

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## chrid16371

I will warn that the thermometers I've used from Petco/PetSmart were 5-15 degrees off and the 2 thermostats I had from there once were very inconsistent at keeping my temps stable. Also you can get the inkbird itc-308 and acurite 00891 a lot cheaper on amazon then you would get at Petco.  You don't have someone you can send it to there address or have it held at a post office for pick up? 

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## MrKai

Ų 

My current setup. I have 5 thermometers lolz. 3 hygrometers. And I switched to mulch to keep humidity. I had to switch back to the bright day time heat lamp because temperatures dropped too low with the other lamp. And the probe was readying as high as 103 under the mulch at the uth

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## MrKai

Huge improvement

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## O'Mathghamhna

> My current setup. I have 5 thermometers lolz. 3 hygrometers. And I switched to mulch to keep humidity. I had to switch back to the bright day time heat lamp because temperatures dropped too low with the other lamp. And the probe was readying as high as 103 under the mulch at the uth


Good deal switching; UTH should *never* be used without a thermostat for this reason. Even with layers of bedding inches thick, the snake can burrow and touch the glass and burn himself.

As far as all your thermo and hygrometers, you could just ditch those and go with 2, good quality, digital thermo/hygro combos? Up to you, but the analog ones aren't as accurate.

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## BMorrison

I used to run tanks after you get your uth regulated ditch the lamps they'll kill your humidity. MOST people's houses will hold humidity well enough that to be honest I don't monitor mine anymore. I'll bump near shed with some sphagnum moss (every other day handling haven't missed a shed yet) and they're all perfect.

Snakes will burrow in any substrate to get to the HOTTEST spot they can touch. I run my herpstats at 90.


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## MrKai

What thermostat is good? The enclosure is cold now it's about 78 cold side and 82 hot side

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## BMorrison

> What thermostat is good? The enclosure is cold now it's about 78 cold side and 82 hot side
> 
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I run the original herpstats still. I highly recommend those. The ve models are also popular.


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MrKai (07-01-2016)

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## BMorrison

The website is http://www.spyderrobotics.com the new models look excellent and based off my old ones the quality will be top notch.


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MrKai (07-01-2016)

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## MrKai

> The website is http://www.spyderrobotics.com the new models look excellent and based off my old ones the quality will be top notch.
> 
> 
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Very nice


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## chrid16371

> Very nice
> 
> 
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If you can afford it definitely go for a Herpstat 1 or reptile basics ve-200. If that price is out of reach than inkbird itc308 from amazon will work. I would take off all the analog thermometers/hygrometers, make sure you have at least one digital thermometer that has a probe on it and also a digital hygrometer. 

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## MrKai

I ordered the inkbird. It looks promising. 

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## chrid16371

> I ordered the inkbird. It looks promising. 
> 
> Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk


My friend has the inkbird itc-308 and it works great. It can be set to only drop 1 degree before it heats again which will help the temp stay consistent, there may be a couple degree swing but not bad. When you get it you will want to put the inkbird probe sandwiched between the uth and bottom of tank and then set it until under the substrate right on the glass is no hotter than 94. You will have to peal back the uth a little bit to stick the probe between it and the bottom of tank. 

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