HI everyone!
Please be slightly patient with me as I know this topic has probably been covered more times than anyone would like to count.
A little background first. This is my first snake, I bought a "dark morph" ball python at the local reptile expo yesterday and am so happy to have her here finally. I've done research for the past year and a half (at least) in preparation of her arrival and wanted to know everything I could before bringing her home. I know that the humidity needs to be around 60% with an increase around sheds and should have about 70*F on the cool side and about 85-90*F on the warm side.
Here's what I have:
-36x18x18 exo terra tank
-Large size zoo med UTH which is down the center of the tank from the hot end, so there is about 2-3 inches on either side to the front and back of the tank that do not have head pad but it extends halfway down the tank.
-Zilla temperature controller for UTH
-ecoearth bedding
-hide/water dish combo and extra hide on cool side
-hide and water dish (not combo) on the warm side
-a few climb branches in the center
- 2 8.5 dome lamp with 100w day and 100w night bulb that is set on a timer for 12h each bulb (9am-9pm for day and 9pm-9am for night)
-flukers hygrometer on warm side of tank
-digital thermometer with probe on warm and cool side (the warm side probe is on top of UTH to monitor temp
I have a bigger water dish for the warm side and some moss for the hide that I will put in when I take her out next week for a first attempt at feeding. I brought her home yesterday and they said to give her a week to acclimate since she was previously in a rack system.
So my warm side reader for the UTH is between 85 and 90*F and my cool side is sitting at around 67*F and my humidity usually sits between 45 and 50%.
I have a damp towel across half of the mesh top but that isn't doing as much as I hoped it would as far as humidity goes.
Are there any suggestions for improving the temp on the cool side and the humidity levels? I do live in a basement and am aware that I will be actively maintaining the tank on a daily basis and am more than willing to do so. Any help/suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance
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