Having trouble with humidity in AP enclosure

[pizzadog__]

happy Monday all!

Saturday was a week that I have had my very first BP! She is a beautiful albino named Luna. The first few days of setting up my enclosure prior to getting her I was having major humidity issues. I am using cypress mulch for the substrate and when I first laid it in the enclosure it sky rocketed my humidity. The night before getting Luna I spent about 3 hours baking the substrate to get the moisture out. Humidity was still a bit high when I left to go pick her up, so I pulled all my substrate out on the hot side, pushed over all the substrate from the cool side and laid paper towels down on the cool side. I had about 2 or 3 days of decent humidity.

I was never able to get a constant humidity through out the entire enclosure (90.7 temp and low 50 humidity on the hot side and 82 temp and high 50s on the cool side). I was worried about the gradient at first, but was reassured it was ok.

Now I'm having issues keeping the humidity up. It's kind of frustrating after spending quite a bit of money on an enclosure that I read nothing but amazing stories on. My humidity at it's best on the hot side is about 48 and at best on the cool side is about 53. I spray the hot side Constantly. I want my humidity to come up about 5-7% on the hot side.

How do I do that?? There Has to be something I can do other than misting multiple times a day. The only thing I can think is that the humidity in the room itself is too low. The temp in the room is almost a constant 74-77, but the humidity is around 25-35. Would a humidifier in the room help with the enclosure?

[LittleTreeGuy]

I'm sort of in the same boat. I've had my bp in her new T8 for about a week and a half now. My room humidity is 41%, and with some heat tap and a 40w RHP using half of a divided T8, my numbers are:

Using a 6" water bowl in the center...
Hot side 90F on the floor, 87F ambient, humidity 38%

Cool side 78F on the floor, 83 ambient, humidity low 40's %.

I have taped over the vents on the side and back of the T8, but a small bowl with wet sphagnum moss in the rear part of the cage, and an additional 7" waterbowl in the front, I have gotten my humidity up to about 62% warm side and 70% cool side.

My advice, keep adding water sources until it's up to where it needs to be. If you're using a full T8, it may take a little more. I'm using kraft paper for my substrate.

[Smitty33]

I had the same thing setting mine up using cypress mulch and way too high of humidity. When I cleaned it out the next time I switched to a 50/50 mix of cypress and aspen mix and that helped a lot. I have never had a problem with low humidity, mines runs 60-55% just keeping the large water bowl full. When I want to boost it higher during a shed I have a skull that I have packed full of moss that I get really damp and sit in there.

Get the moss wet in a bowl of water and squeeze out excess and pack it in the skull as tight as possible.When it dries out it's almost solid but re-sucks water up like a sponge.

When I dampen the skull I can bump my humidity up too about 70% and really never have to mist to keep humidity levels where they need to be.

[spikell75]

I have low humidity where it live and aspen just wasn't cutting it. I ended up getting humidifier for the room and now use repti bark. and bigger water dish. mine are constant 50-60%

[pizzadog__]

sounds like a solid idea. how long do you expect the moss to last? is that something I can just keep reusing once it dries out?

I will have to do some rearranging in order to fit another water bowl in there. The one I have now is pretty big. I also have a lot of clutter on the floor. My BP is about 7 months old weighing in at 225g (close to at least. I weighed her a couple of days ago and know it was low 200s). I have a t-10 so I wanted as much stuff in there as I could to lessen the stress.

[Smitty33]

sounds like a solid idea. how long do you expect the moss to last? is that something I can just keep reusing once it dries out?

I will have to do some rearranging in order to fit another water bowl in there. The one I have now is pretty big. I also have a lot of clutter on the floor. My BP is about 7 months old weighing in at 225g (close to at least. I weighed her a couple of days ago and know it was low 200s). I have a t-10 so I wanted as much stuff in there as I could to lessen the stress.

The moss will last quite a long time and you can just re-wet it when it dries out. Inside the skull it doesn't get dirty or pee'd on so it will last a long time.

[Reinz]

All I do is pour about 4-6 ounces of water directly on the cypress and the humidity will bump up about 5-6 % and last for weeks.

My problem is that the humidity gets too high when the snakes are in and out of their water bowls spilling water.


Etta, Coastal Carpet