What am I doin wrong???

Hi all,

Boston is 5 months old now and had 3 sheds with us. First one came off in 2 pieces. Was using aspen bedding and a fine mist daily. Thought I would try to bring up the moisture a bit so added some moss in the corners to hold the water better. Humidity was usually 60, which I thought was pretty good for a large tank (16x38) UTH Temps holding at 90 with a herpstat and ambiant around 80. His 2nd shed actually got worse! Don't have a clue why! Since then I have changed his bedding to coconut fiber and and a humid hide for him to enter as needed. He doesn't like it and has since shed again in multiple pieces. Even had to run him through a wet towel to help him work the skin off. So my next action plan is to thoroughly spray the bedding every other day or so. But since then the humidity holds around 80 until I uncover the top for a day or so. I read the risks about keeping humidity high. But based on his bad sheds ... I think he needs it higher. Im totally not an expert at this. Just want to know if I am doing more harm them worse by holding a higher humidity. I just don't know how else to help his shedding issues. Thoughts?

I usually wait until their eyes have cleared and they've got their normal colouring back and then heavily spray their viv two or three times a day until they've shed - 99% of the time in one piece . The crucial time is AFTER their eyes and colour have got back to normal -- it's much harder to tell if - when some albinos are in shed mode though and quite often it's their changes in normal behaviour that tells me they're in shed .

Sounds like you have a junk hygrometer. 60% should be giving perfect sheds.

I suggest placing moss in all the hides. During a shed keep the moss wet and during regular times allow it to dry out before making it damp again. I have done this a long time with my glass tank and though my humidity is in the 30s in the tank the higher humidity in both hides is more than enough to give me perfect sheds.

Bumping up the humidity to 75% will help. With my coco fiber I usually give about 60% of the bedding a good mist/light soak before I go to work (13 hours..) and it holds the humidity well. Some moist moss in his hides will also do some good. I usually mist 2 to 4 times a day.

Any other symptoms?

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Originally Posted by KMG

Sounds like you have a junk hygrometer. 60% should be giving perfect sheds.

I suggest placing moss in all the hides. During a shed keep the moss wet and during regular times allow it to dry out before making it damp again. I have done this a long time with my glass tank and though my humidity is in the 30s in the tank the higher humidity in both hides is more than enough to give me perfect sheds.

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Thank you for the reply KMG, i always appreciate ur advice :) I did place miss in all his hides but then he refused to use them. He started favouring one corner of his tank where he was in open view. He spent days outside his hide. Only when the moss was fully dry would he renter his hides. It was defeating the purpose and to avoid stress I thought it was best to pull the moss out and use it in the corners of the tank.

Im going out tomorrow to get another hygrometer, maybe 2. Then I can measure throughout the tank. I'm thinking since the tank is large it's not measuring the entire tank and giving me readings of higher humidity in areas where Boston doesn't spend a lot of his time making it useless to him.

I just assumed that he would seek out the hider humidity area when he needed it. Similar to how he moves from the warm side to the cool. But when I introduced a humid hide he wouldn't even use that.

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Originally Posted by SnakeBalls

Bumping up the humidity to 75% will help. With my coco fiber I usually give about 60% of the bedding a good mist/light soak before I go to work (13 hours..) and it holds the humidity well. Some moist moss in his hides will also do some good. I usually mist 2 to 4 times a day.

Any other symptoms?

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Thanx for the reply SnakeBalls! I have been keeping it around 75 soaking about 75% of his coco bedding, whichever side he is not on at that moment. Wondering if I'm soaking too much. I use almost the entire spray bottle with warm water. It's about 500ml. Is this to much for a 38X16X18 glass tank? top screen is covered about 75-80% with a tin foil and a towel. I usually open it a bit more immediately after speaking just to keep the humidity from getting to high. What do u think?

as far as the symptoms go, I haven't really seen any. I watch him yawn and I never see any trails of spit from his inside his mouth. I do see him tilt his head in a upward period ie: resting it on his rock, but I think that's just his unique personality as he doesn't hold the position for very long. Is their something else that I would keep an eye out for? I clean the tank fully (dump and replace) every 3 weeks as I worry that I won't notice the mold since the bedding is so dark. A lot of my knowledge just comes from online reading tho as Boston is out 1st snake and he's only 5months old. Any pointers from experienced wonder is appreciated :)

Do you have a lamp that emits a lot of heat ? Because that dries up the air pretty quick within the tank. But 60 percent should be giving you good sheds, though people recommend bumping it up to 70 during shed cycle.

Try and swap out tin foil for plastic wrap to give a better seal for humidity. Most people recommend a fitted plexi glass though for better results.
Also Sphagnum moss around the enclosure and some inside one hide to make a humid hide.
If all else fails try and up the humidity within the room itself via humidifier or something lol. Or if you're willing to spend a bit of money get an automatic mister system.

Also if your humidity gauge is one of those analog ones, try and invest on digital cause you might be getting wrong readings idk.

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Originally Posted by Borgpython

Do you have a lamp that emits a lot of heat ? Because that dries up the air pretty quick within the tank. But 60 percent should be giving you good sheds, though people recommend bumping it up to 70 during shed cycle.

We do use a heat lamp for ambient heat. It's the red one and we use it 24/7 to maintain the right temp inside his enclosure.

Try and swap out tin foil for plastic wrap to give a better seal for humidity. Most people recommend a fitted plexi glass though for better results.

i did have cling wrap on it at first but it wasn't holding the heat in like the tinfoil does. I'm going to go hunting for some plexi glass to fit perfectly. Should I get 2 pieces (one on each side of the light) or one piece with a cut out for the lamp?

Also Sphagnum moss around the enclosure and some inside one hide to make a humid hide.
If all else fails try and up the humidity within the room itself via humidifier or something lol. Or if you're willing to spend a bit of money get an automatic mister system.

Moss AROUND the hides! I haven't tried that one yet :) thanx!

Also if your humidity gauge is one of those analog ones, try and invest on digital cause you might be getting wrong readings idk.

i have a digital one, it also has a probe to measure the heat above my UTH. Mayr I will get another one just to make sure it's not acting up

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