Wet Substrate Crisis
Hey Guys! (First post..)
I have a little bit of a dilemma.
I got my first ball python yesterday (a lil pastel, about 17" or so?) and I love her a lot already. Her name is Chai, like the tea, if you were curious.
Anyways-
The substrate I use for her cage is Cypress chips. When I put it in the cage, it was wet. I figured, not a huge deal, it'll dry on it's own, especially with the heat mat and having the screen lid for ventilation. (I keep a lot of tarantulas, desert species get over wet substrate in a couple days when it dries out, they just get mildly irritated in the mean time)
But I'm reading up about all these awful things like blisters and scale rot just from spilled water dishes and now I feel like I've failed horribly at the most basic first step in owning this BP D:
Should I pull her out to bake the substrate completely dry? The top layer seems dry, but I can feel that under that it's still damp.
I got her yesterday, and kept her out for an hour or two after I set up the cage, but didn't want to much longer since it was an hour back from the show I got her from. (And that's a lot of things going on!) I assumed she'd just be kind of irate, but otherwise fine, kind of like Ts(I know what they say about assumptions).
I don't want to screw up within 24hrs, so any help/suggestions/admonishments are welcome.
Also, where do I get an accurate heat/humidity gauge without breaking the bank? I have a cheap one but I've read most of the ones in pet stores are inaccurate.
Thanks,
-Bemottled
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