HELP! New to ball pythons!! Humidity problem

How are you reading the surface temp of the hotspot over the uth?

Having the substrate as thick as it appears will insulate and trap alot of heat. If the uth is providing a hotspot of 90 with over an inch of eco earth over it the temp at the glass tank bottom is going to be dangerously hot.

If your creating a 90 hotspot at the glass bottom and then putting the substrate over it the actual surface temp on to of the substrate will not be close to 90.

Either way I don't think your snake is getting much good from the uth. Unplug it until you get it sorted out. Sounds like your setup will be just fine with just the light so I would save up and buy a good tstat when you can afford it then start using the uth again.

I think you'll be ok if you just added a humid hide on the warm side of the enclosure.

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taping tinfoil to the top and covering the cage top works very well for me, only have to spray twice a day and it keeps the humidity up. i also have a tub of moss in water which helps keep it humid. they both work

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Originally Posted by KMG

Dimmers are fine for lights but not good for uth. When the temp changes the dimmer doesn't know and continues to pump power into the uth which can cause it to over heat the hotspot quickly.

As for a tstat if you buy cheap you get cheap. The one at both Petco and Petsmart are junk and so are the Hydrofarm ones. I was given one from Petco with a snake I bought from a family that no longer wanted to care for it. While I ordered my new cages and tstat I was using it. It broke just before I was going to switch. I Also had a Hydrofarm that broke within 3 months of getting it.

The tstat is the mist important piece of equipment you as a keeper can buy.

I have both a Herpstat 1 and 4. I absolutely love them. For the money they can not be beat.

You can buy a cheap one but it will fail and you will end up buying another one and probably ending up with a good one. Save money in the long run and buy it right the first time.

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I'm sure you did have problems with your hydro farm tstat but to say they are junk? I'm not so sure. I have one and it works great. It's great option for someone who doesn't have the money to spend on a better proportional one. It's better than not having one.
Op, I had a lot of issues with humidity as well. I did the towel trick, misted, moss ect... The only thing that worked for me was misting as often as I could. My sons snake had his first shed (since we owned him) and he was fine at an average humidity of 45%. Came off in one piece no problem. Try your best to keep it high but I wouldn't worry too much if you can't get it to stay at 70% all the time.
gdlk

I stand by what I said. When I first got it I was pretty happy with it and even suggested using it to others on here. But just after a couple months of use it started erratic behavior and died. I was lucky because I was using a fluckers uth that does not get as hot as the zoomed uth. I believe any snake is worth enough to buy a proper tstat and not use one that is known to break. It is intended for dirt not living animals. Having it fail performing its purpose is not that big of a deal but failing while regulating a heater for your snake can lead to death. I will not suggest something I have had put my snakes in danger.

I think that if you can use lamps alone, like the op, you should instead of buying a questionable product. Over time save up and buy a proper one instead of chancing it with something that is not currently needed.

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Originally Posted by tomjones456

I'm new to ball pythons, seems like i have all the temperature set up right, but my humidity has been a big problem. My new albino is looking like shes starting to go into shed so i'm trying everything to get the humidity up and it doesn't seem to work. I've tried misting my whole tank (using eco earth), using sphagnum moss and misting that, and using the wet towel method. Sphagnum moss/misting seems to help a little, but my humidity only went from 40% to around 43-47% max. My goal is to get it to about 50-60%! please help, any answers would be appreciated! thanks :)


heres my setup:

http://i1353.photobucket.com/albums/...psfd35ef53.jpg


heres Luna, my 2012 albino


http://i1353.photobucket.com/albums/...psb79404ab.jpg

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Two people have given you the answer.

Spritzing and watering the enclosure, restricting airflow and other methods often succeed in only giving you a humidity spike or turning the enclosure into a biological weapons factory.

Remember, a ball python uses a termite mound in the wild for it's heat and humidity needs.

So take a cue from mother nature, simplify your life and cut down on any potential environmental health risks associated with trying to turn the whole enclosure into a petri dish - create a humid hide.

Not sure if you have a screen top like u do but I did the foil method and it keeps my tank at 45%-50% my BP just started shedding so I spray the inside of the tank with some water and it bumps up to 65-75% maybe covering the top with the foil technique can help you out

the hot spot is sitting at 87-90. do i measure from on top of the soil or on the glass tank bottom? im measuring with a probe from the soil

Under the hot side hide is where that should be. The bottom and substrate surface should both be known as well. IR guns are very useful for quick and dirty measurements like this.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Skiploder

Two people have given you the answer.

Spritzing and watering the enclosure, restricting airflow and other methods often succeed in only giving you a humidity spike or turning the enclosure into a biological weapons factory.

Remember, a ball python uses a termite mound in the wild for it's heat and humidity needs.

So take a cue from mother nature, simplify your life and cut down on any potential environmental health risks associated with trying to turn the whole enclosure into a petri dish - create a humid hide.

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This^^^^, see how the shed comes out and adjust, you can get a bigger humid hide you place in during shedding and take out after. Tupperware tub with a lid and hole cut on the side works well.