Humidity too low

[brittany]

Hi all!

Last night I aquired my first ball python. Now, I'm not new to reptiles but this is the first snake that I personally have kept. I had friends with snakes in high school but none of my own until this point. I have to admit, this one has stolen my heart. I'm a member of our local herp society and last night was our monthly meeting. I came home with Zoe (whom I named) who is supposedly 2 years old. I don't have a weight or length on her yet but she does appear healthy. After she settles in I'll take her to the vet for a ultrasound just to be sure that she is not pregnant as she was housed with a male.

I have her in a tub that is 28"x16"x12". I am using a uth on a rheostat for heat, newspaper with eco-earth on top of it. I'm still playing with the temps but we've almost got it spot on. Cool is 79.7 and then hot is 89.5. I'm using a acu-rite digital thermometer with a probe and a temp gun. The digi is more for the humidity than anything as it's a hydrog/therm combo. The tub is simple, I don't want to overwhelm her. She's got 2 hides, one on the cool side, one on the hot side and a tupperware water dish in the middle of the tank.

I live in Seattle so humidity is generally not a problem but I am having trouble raising the humidity in her enclosure. I looked for some s. moss but couldn't find any. I am really concerned about it. How can I raise the humidity?

I'm also getting some seriously conflicting advise on lighting. The only thing confirmed is they don't need UVB. So, do they need a spot light in their tub/tank or not? There's a large window in the room that she's in and I also leave the light on all day. Is this adequate? If not, I can accomodate this.

Thanks a lot for your help.

[Sunny1]

Hello and welcome!!

I am wondering what is the humidity in her tub? I am not too sure about eco earth as I have never used it, but have you tried misting it a little? You can also try moving her water dish more on top of the UTH, this will cause the water to evaporate a little more due to the heat from it. IMO, I have always used cypress mulch, or the big chunks of coconut bark, or reptibark, all three have worked really well to help keep up the humidity levels in my tank, usually I try to stick with the cypress mulch as I like that the best.

As far as light goes, she will be fine with just the ambient light from the window or from leaving the light on. BP's are nocturnal anyway, so usually they are sleeping in the day and coming out at night. So you really don't need any extra light for her.

Good luck with your BP and be warned that they are addicting!! You really can't have just one. I have 2 now myself (as well as a corn snake) and have the itch to get another, but I am doing good at holding back for now!! LOL

[Sparky1]

I totally agree with Sunny1, you can mist your bedding a bit if its real low. If you are 50% or close to she should be fine, during shed try to get it up a lil higher. I would try to get the temps up some personally, i usually shoot for around 92 warm and in the low 80 cool. Yeah addicting is for sure wnt from 1 to 5 in no time!

[brittany]

Thanks for your replies.
The humidity is 40% now so I'm hoping if I mist the cage and add some spanish moss it should help get it up where it needs to be. She's actually finishing out a shed and has a couple scales on her spine that haven't fallen off yet. I'm hoping they will as I really want to leave her alone as best I can to let her settle in. She hasn't eaten in two weeks so she's due to but I want her to settle in first.
I can tell it's addicting, I'm planning on a red tail boa and a brazilian rainbow boa eventually too. Now only to convince the boyfriend...

[Ekama Exotics]

Congrats on your first BP!

What type of lid do you have on your tub? Does the tub have a lot of holes?
If it has holes in the lid/cover, you can cover it with some aluminum foil or something to help keep some humidity in there.

If the lid doesn't have holes and your setup is more like a rack system, I'd go with misting every few days... not too much though or it'll house bacteria.

Good Luck!

[brittany]

Congrats on your first BP!

What type of lid do you have on your tub? Does the tub have a lot of holes?
If it has holes in the lid/cover, you can cover it with some aluminum foil or something to help keep some humidity in there.

If the lid doesn't have holes and your setup is more like a rack system, I'd go with misting every few days... not too much though or it'll house bacteria.

Good Luck!

The lid doesn't have holes. It's the start of my rack system in disguise. It took convincing the boyfriend to even keep this one let alone get 10 more, even though I'd love to. Slowly but surely.

I'm going to try misting it as well. It gets lots of dew built up on the plastic but the humidity is still too low.

I'm adding some spanish moss so would it be best to add this to the hides or in lids in the corners? Where's the best placement for it?

[addsdad]

I would try Pamela's suggestion of moving the water bowl over the top of the uth first. This usually helps for me when needed. If I need to get the humidity higher, I will then cover a couple of the holes in the tub with duct tape. If I need even higher, I will ball up a damp paper towel and place that in the tub (probably the equivalent to the moss you are planning on adding).

[NickP]

Don't know if this was mentioned or not, but you can get bunch of crumpled paper towels, wet them and put them in the tank. I used that technique awhile ago and it works great. Just re-mist them every 2 days or so. That will up your humidity to 60+. Also try puting your water dish either directly above a UTH or under a lamp. That should increase it too. Finally misting the substrate helps too, but I don't like having my bp on damp substrate.

[hoo-t]

You've gotten a lot of good advice for the humidity issue, so I won't go there. You mentioned taking her to a vet to determine if she is gravid. No guarantees, but if she is eating, chances are she's not gravid. Female bps will generally go off food when they are "expecting". However, if she was housed with a male, and if she is not gravid, she could become gravid anytime due to retained sperm. I'm not really sure how long retained sperm stays viable in bps. Some people say up to a year.

Steve