humidity 99%?! and 80 degree hotspot?!

ok just got my first balls last week, love them and im addicted. i was worried about them both, but got most things down already.

i have a rack system, completely closed on both sides. 4" flexwatt belly heat, wired parallel plugged into herpstat. i started with paper towels but this was not working well so i switched to aspen which has been great for the one day that ive been using it so far. the female pastel is bigger than the male and so i discovered i can take her lid off and her humidity reads at 50-59% on the acurite. the acurite reads at 90% temp. no problem with that one. her pinstripe male counterpart is very small, like hatchling sized. I took his lid off and just like the pastel, he circled the tub looking for a way out. but unlike the pastel he actually found one. he got half way out and seemed to get stuck so i pulled the tub out and put him back and put the lid on. this morning when i checked their temps, his acurite read 99% HUMIDITY?!?! i was afraid of high humidity so i gave him a slightly smaller water dish, while the female without the top has a small-medium sized one to compensate for humidity loss. i sprayed the aspen in addition to this. i think im going to make some more holes in the males tub when i get back home. I would have done this right when i saw it but i had to leave and had no time :angered:. will he be ok until i get back home in about seven hours? im really worried about him.

as far as the hotspot goes for the male, the acurite read at 80 degrees, but the acurite probe had been moved just to the edge of the hotspot. this was at 5:00 am so i dont really remember if it was 80 or 89 as i had just woken up. the therm gun read at 89 i think. im worried that his flexwatt strip is not getting as hot as the females which has the herpstat probe on it. the females is the first piece in the parallel, the males is the second and then the third is just near them to raise ambients. the females actual flexwatt strip reads at 90-95 making her hotspot 90-92. the males actual piece of flexwatt reads at 89-94 making his hotspot (and this may be wishful thinking, im nervous about this and worried so im a little forgetful) about 90 when read with a temp gun.

please bare with me as im a new owner. the third strip that isnt taped down, just hangs there reads at 85 degrees, i believe this is because its more in the open as oposed to the other ones that are tapped down and in the back of the rack, where more heat can collect. does this make sense, or did i mess up wiring the flexwatt?

high humidity + low temps = RI

You want to take care of the husbandry issues ASAP. In future, get the husbandry properly regulated before introducing the animals. If the humidity is 99%, then you need to add more holes. In the meantime I'd also take out the wet substrate and replace is with dryer substrate to drop the humidity.

Hey thank you, I think it was the acurite. I cleaned the tub and it still read in the 80's and when switched it read in the 60's. I'm still figuring all this out but I'm getting it. Thanks


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