Shed / Temp Problem

Hey BPnet,
Well i have posted here a few times but i am still very new to this and this is the first time my snake goes under shed under my care. He is about 3 months old pastel BP ( morpheus ) his shedding is coming off in peices and not in one nice full peice. I hadnt had a chance to buy any guages to check temp and humidity, but after i saw his shedding start off bad i ran to the store and bought some they are made by Flukers. they are digital and say temp and humidity they were the only ones they had so i bought 2 one for each side of the tank. They were only in the tank for like 15 minutes and i got reading of 77 ( hot side ) 72 ( cold side ) which is not good!! they are not on the substrate there mounted on the glass. I was gettin good humidity levels 84 ( hot side ) 75 ( cold side ) I hope the temperatures get warmer but i couldnt stay longer to see if they would i had to go to work.
here is a thread of my tank setup so you can see, i have added one more plastic tree and one more flexi branch since those pictures and put a bit more substrate. I believe that is what is not helping me out is that i have way to much substrate in the tank which might be suckin up all my heat. My only heat source is one Medium size UTH, I did not want to use any lamps cause they would kill my humidity since i have a screen top. Please give me some advise to get my heat levels right. As for the shedding I read a sticky post of shedding problems to soak him for 45 minutes then let him slide through a moist towel to try to remove shed might try that out if all doesnt fall out on its own.

and may i add tomorrow is his feeding day do i attempt it or skip it since hes in shedding. i believe the head sheadding is off already so he should be able to see fine.

Hi,

Can you tell me more about these thermometers you got? are they digital with probes? If so put the probes inside the hides directly on the glass. Then try them on top of the substrate inside the hides. Leave them for at least 30 minutes (and longer if you can) to let the temps stabilise from you opening the lid and lifting the hides etc. :)

There is no real reason to measure the temps half way up the sides of the tank really if you can measure where the snake actually spends most of its time.

Have you read the various good threads on modifying the tank lid to hold in humidity and insulating the bottom, back and sides to help hold the heat steady? I really prefer using the foil to cover it rather than the towel as I feel it has less possible problems. The black you put on the outside of his tank will help with his feeling of security but adding a layer of insulating material like polystyrene or cork shetting or reflectix (sp?) will help with heating as well.


dr del

Dude, re-read your own post:

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showthread.php?t=80853

Your answers are right there. Not knowing what your Temps and Humidity for this long was bound to lead to problems. You need to get a probe into the substrate, or get a laser temp gun so you can spot measure. The humidity guage on the glass is alright to keep an eye on the ambient humidity, but you really need to know what the temps are where your snake spends it's time.

3 or 4 days after i see the eyes milk over i spray the tubs to get the humidtiy up which is a must for a good shed,tanks are horrible at keeping the humidity level up.also if the shed is comming off he shoud feed,its when they first go in they go off feed for me.

i did a foil treatment to my screen top with aluminum foil and duct tape and left a small window for ventilation and removed a lot of the substrate and the tempertures are pretty good now, but now my humidy has gone real high i got 75 - 82 humidity is that to high ?? i also had made a humid hide before fixing my screen top should i remove that humid hide ( plastic container with moist moss inside )??