Problems with humidity for BRB

Hey all,

I have been having some problems with my enclosure for my BRB. He is a 3 year old male, about 5 feet long. He is small for his age (his breeder says he fed less in the winter, but when I saw him I knew it had been going on longer than that).

Anyways, I have him set up in a 40 gal breeder with lots of hides and water bowls and moss and branches and all that. He has a large UTH and is in eco earth. When I first got the set up I had a glass lid for the tank, which later cracked in an earthquake. I wanted something more flexible, so I did a DIY plexiglass sliding lid. It was great at first, but then started warping and eventually we had an escape. So Then we went to a screen lid with clips on top of the sliding plexiglass, but I am still struggling to keep the humidity up. Now the plexiglass managed to break. I'm not even sure how, as no one was touching the tank at the time. But now all I have is the screen and Samhain is about to go into shed and needs higher humidity. I placed a plastic bag over the top of the screen for tonight, as all local stores are closed, but after adding another water dish and misting the whole thing down and moistening the moss again, its still sitting at 75% and I would really like it closer to 80-85% as he did not have an easy shed last time around and I want to make sure he does this time.

I saw a sticky on here about tin foil to cover the screens and keep in humidity, but it would raise temps. I don't have A/C in my house and its getting to be summer. I am struggling to keep temps DOWN, I don't want to raise them with a tin foil lid. Any ideas on what I could do. I am in the process of buying a house (which is a HUGE expense here) and don't have a lot of spare cash to go buy a thermostat or other forms of caging such as pvc. I plan to get a thermostat as soon as I move though, since keeping Samhain's tank the proper temp is 1000x harder than my corns now that summer has come.

Any thoughts on how I could rig this enclosure lid to keep in humidity without cooking my baby?

Buying an advanced care snake without the money to properly care for it was your first mistake.

Trying to use a 40 gallon breeder is the second. They don't hold humidity well and is to small for a adult BRB anyway.

Third if the uth you are using is not controlled by a thermostat, UNPLUG IT NOW. Uncontrolled UTHs can really hurt and even kill your snake. BRBs do not need high temp hotspots and the uth is guaranteed to be too hot for him. And if you covered it with substrate and think it's safe, you are wrong. Your snake can and will burrow at some point. Just unplug it until you can use it correctly. Google burned snakes to see what can happen. If you don't have money for a tutelage you for sure don't have money for an emergency vet visit.

As to rigging this tank it can be done. Humidity at 75% is good, if that is what it really is.

I suggest two things.

1. Get a large bowl the snake can soak in. My 6ft boy loves soaking no matter if he is in shed or not.

2. Get frog moss from the pet store. Make a big clump damp and place it in the hides. This will create higher humidity in the hides. This will not raise the tank humidity but will keep it high in the hides and since that is where the snake will be, it is benefited greatly by it.

You may check around Craigslist for a used PVC cage. You would be much better off with one.

Make a humid hide. I use a Rubbermaid bowl with a lid, cut a small opening in the side and add damp paper towels.
My house gets really dry in the winter and even in a Boaphile it was hard to keep the humidity up. My BRB loves her humid hide.