Covereing top of cage mesh

I was just wondering, like i have seen in many threads about glass tanks, if it would be alright to put some sort or covering on the cage mesh to retain some humitidy. This is kind of a project to try to imitate wat a tub can do :D

many thrreads i have seen have the whole top covered (no air holes) except for a circel about 2/3 of the way over for the lamp. The lamps pretty much cover the whole hole so i was wondering if I would need to drill extra holes? Or will the slight ring around the lamp be good enough?

My humidity has dropped to about 45% and i thought that something must be done .


Thank you in advance for all the replies.

Yes. Covering most of it with aluminum foil, shiny side down, is a cheap and effective way to raise humidity as well as ambient cage temps.

okay thank you.. how much should i leave open for air circulation?

For my glass tank (when I used one) we left enough room for the heat lamp dome. That was it.

If you're up for spending a little money ($30 or so) you can throw out the screen top and make yourself a solid top out of Plexiglass. I did this with both of my tanks that are now converted to snake tanks. Humidity and heat stay in better and you have the shop cut a circular hole so you can attach screen and use a lamp if you like. You can also have them drill a few 1/4" air holes for circulation or do it yourself at home.

It's also pretty much escape proof if you remember to close the latches. I have one more tank that, if I keep using it, will be converted, too. I really like the look and the convenience.

The hole can be the same diameter as the hood of the lamp, that's fine. You shouldn't need to add any extra diameter. =)

If you going with tin foil, why not experiment? =)

I had the same problem as you. My tank is 30"x18"x12" and I covered all but about 10-12" of it with plexiglass. During the day, the temp hovers about 80-85f with a humidity of about 75-80%. At night, the temp stays about the same, but the humidity raises to 90-100%. I set a large pan of de-clorinated water under the lights to help the humidity and for the snakes to bathe in if they want to or are in their shed stages. The plexiglass didn`t cost much...about $10-$12 from a local hardware store. I did have to cut some off the width to make it fit, but it worked out really well. I wanted to add some picts of my set-up, but can`t. If you want to see them, send me your email and I`ll send them to you.

This is what I did:
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...0/p1000825.jpg
I used three layers of aluminum foil, sealed the edges with duct tape and left an opening about the size of my lamp. My ambient temps came up about 5-7 degrees, and my humidity came up about 10% (also added an extra water dish under my lamp). It doesn't look as good as plexiglass, but it is a quick fix on a budget.

http://www.ball-pythons.net/gallery/...=3&userid=8058
This is what I was talking about. I added some picts to my gallery. You can view the rest if you want.
Brian

Mine goes a bit further than that and replaces the screen tops. I got tired of always having to remove the whole lid when I needed to get into the tank.

This is a 45G that is split for my pair of Centralian carpet pythons. I also did a 75G that currently houses an Irian Jaya carpet. There are a few more pictures of it in my gallery. The longest wait was for the glue to dissipate the smell (about 4 days). I waited until I couldn't smell it anymore to put the snakes into their tanks.

https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...2/fullshot.JPG