BP NEWBIE! Question! Need your help :-)

[russianbear90]

Hey everyone!

New to Ball Pythons, and new to this site/forum! Good to be here!

I just got a young 170 gram BP George. He is awesome and I love him! I have never owned a reptile before (other than a turtle). I have done a lot of research and I think I have a lot of things down!!!

My set up:

- 20 Gallon Zilla Terrarium (gonna upgrade to 30g later).
- Large hiding spot. Large water bowl.
- 1 large day heat light
- 1 large night heat light.
- Mansoon RS400 misting system (which i am not sure I like all that much as of now).
- Aspen wood chip bedding.
- Large sized sticky warmer/mat.

I try to keep the temps at 80/85 degrees during the day and about 75/78ish during the night.

MY QUESTION is about the humidity....I know that you are supposed to keep it at 55-65%. I got tired of the whole wet towel + water spraying thing and decided to try out the Mansoon RS400....

Right now, I have it set to spray for 13 seconds every hour or so. And whats weird is that after spraying it gets to about 60%. And then within that hour it drops all the way down to 10/20%. Then back to 60%......And etc. Problem is that now Aspen chips are all soaked in a lot of places and it starting to smell funky in there. I got the python out today, and got some chips on my arm. BP didnt smell, but the chips stunk pretty bad. SO basically the aspen bedding isnt getting dry at all....Is it supposed to?


What do you guys recommend????? I know that I should probably do a setting where it sprays every 4 hours for longer period of time such as 25 secs....But in that case, it will go down to like 15% humidity very quickly...And gonna sit at that for 2 hours......

So my main problems are: aspen chip smell/not drying out spots and keeping the humidity level stable......


P.S. Its still chilly in Kansas city, and we have heater on a lot. Our humidity levels in the house are pretty low this season...About 25-27%....Hope it will go up soon.


THANK YOU GUYS FOR YOUR TIME!!!

[russianbear90]

*monsoon rs400

[Coluber42]

You should not have soaking wet or damp substrate. They don't live in swamps. If your aspen has gotten stinky, throw it all out and start fresh. If you cover most of the screen top you won't lose the humidity so fast; maybe cover all of it except where the heat lamps are. That will still leave plenty of ventilation, because your lamps are not airtight or anything. You can also get a larger water bowl with a bigger surface area and put it right under the lamp. You might also try a different heat source too. You should not have to mist every hour!

But I'm also curious what you're using to measure the humidity, and where it is. What you're describing sounds fairly strange.

One last suggestion that might be worth trying is raising the humidity in the room where the snake is. An easy way to get some cheap, passive humidification is to set boot trays full of water in front of the heat vents (or pans on or under radiators, if that's what you have). In my music room I get a little extra humidificaton that way. It's not a ton, since there's only one vent, but it's better than nothing and it makes the room more comfortable for humans, too.

[Slim]

You're probably not gonna want to hear it, but my best advise is to ditch the glass tank and switch to a tub setup.

I've fought the fight you're fighting now, and I lost. Tubs are the way to go.

[russianbear90]

You're probably not gonna want to hear it, but my best advise is to ditch the glass tank and switch to a tub setup.

I've fought the fight you're fighting now, and I lost. Tubs are the way to go.

Thanks a lot! I'll have to give that a try...

[russianbear90]

You should not have soaking wet or damp substrate. They don't live in swamps. If your aspen has gotten stinky, throw it all out and start fresh. If you cover most of the screen top you won't lose the humidity so fast; maybe cover all of it except where the heat lamps are. That will still leave plenty of ventilation, because your lamps are not airtight or anything. You can also get a larger water bowl with a bigger surface area and put it right under the lamp. You might also try a different heat source too. You should not have to mist every hour!

But I'm also curious what you're using to measure the humidity, and where it is. What you're describing sounds fairly strange.

One last suggestion that might be worth trying is raising the humidity in the room where the snake is. An easy way to get some cheap, passive humidification is to set boot trays full of water in front of the heat vents (or pans on or under radiators, if that's what you have). In my music room I get a little extra humidification that way. It's not a ton, since there's only one vent, but it's better than nothing and it makes the room more comfortable for humans, too.

Thanks for the reply! Yeah i will try to first replace all the damp substrate and cover the top, and give it one more go.

What i am using is a round Zilla temp/humidity thermostat that you just stick on the glass using suction cups....Its not that great honestly - I need to get a new one. Its located right in the middle of the back wall, about 30% down from the top.