First ball python and humidity problem

Hi everyone i bought my first ball python 1 month ago , he's a baby so i have him in a 10 galon aquarium for now here is my set-up

undertank heatpad
55w light on top of cage ( open all day and i close it before sleep )
1 hide under the light and on top of heatpad
1 hide on cold side
water dish in middle
and a branch in the cage
and for substrate i got that coconut brick thing


i'm pretty sure my temp are good the only problem is about 2 weeks ago he got is first shed...and it was all in pieces and theres still even a bit on top of is head , but the eye caps are gone and he has dents in is eyes... i read that can be caused by low humidity , so i checked the humidity and it's only at 20%!!! i know it's suppose to be from 40-60% how can i raise it? i tried spraying water on the side a bit but it doesnt realy up the humidity....


any help would be appreciated allot and if anyone could tell me if ever i'm missing anything in the tank and if my set-up looks good.

thanks =)

Any overhead lighting is going to suck all of the humidity out of the cage. Have you tried the tinfoil/ duct tape method? another thing that you could do is to get a water bowl with a larger surface area (allows for more evaporation of the water).

Here is a pic of my old tank set up (I've moved to a tub rack system)
It's a 20 gal long, but the same basic idea still applies to a 10 gal tank
http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r...Picture043.jpg

Thanks for the quick reply , no i didnt try that method what is it ? just take tinfoil and duct tape it to the top of the screen ? i'll try this right now , and the water bowl is already pretty big for the cage so i can't realy make it any bigger :\

i was just wondering ... at first when i soak the brick into water the first couple days was allot more humid in the cage , can't i just soak it with a bit of water like once a week? or that wouldnt be good?

Yes, cover 3/4 of the outside of the screen top with foil, leaving enough room for the overhead heating device, an duct tape it down. Just make sure that your BP cannot come into contact with the duct tape at all, or it could seriously injure it. and if the water bowl is already pretty big, that's fine. I would suggest moving it a little closer to the hot side if you could.

In my old tank set-up, i used to have a CHE and an undertank heater with a mulch/cocoanut husk bedding mix, and I still had to spray down the bedding with additional water about every 3 days to keep the humidity level up.

Alright i just taped all the outside of the screen top were the light doesnt go , thanks i hope it's gonna help a bit

so it's alright for me to soak the substrate maybe once a week or so to up the humidity? cause i read somewere that if it's wet it's not good for the snake or something , but if it's ok i'm sure thats gonna help ALOT with the humidity !

You don't want the ground to be swampy, but just lightly damp to the touch. What I used to do was take everything out of the cage and add 1/4 a cup of water to the substrate and mix it in very well to distribute as much of the moist soil that I could, and if there were still some really dry spots, then i'd add as much as I thought was needed.

Well i just watered it down a bit and the humidity just went to 70% so thats good , but i know as soon as i open the top light it's gonna kill the humidity :(