Possible solution to low humidity issues???

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Originally Posted by MsMissy

Nagini is an adorable bouncing baby 86g bp. Bedding ='s reptibark + Eco earth, approx 1/2". Because of the ac being on so much this time of year<never turned off> a heat lamp is required to maintain ambient temps. I tried turning it off during the day and the temps plummeted to 76 on the hot side, I shudder to think what the cool side was. I have a humid hide, 2 water dishes and covered the lid with foil and tape. She just went into shed for the first time so now I'm spraying as often as possible to give her over 60%.

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Ok what I'm about to tell you will work for BP's and this is what I used to do to keep my Anaconda's humidity 70%+ and that's with a overhead heat emitter. For this to work you need an UTH and you should NOT do this if your snake burrows or digs up any kind of layer. I'm only slightly familiar with reptibark and from what I know when I used to keep scorpions is that it doesn't hold humidity well, or at least it never did for me. Your Eco earth is fine, though I don't know how it'll affect what I'm going to tell you, when I did this I used the Forest Floor by Zoo Med which is cypress mulch. So you may or may not have to do away with the Eco Earth.

What you do is you want ideally about 3-4" of substrate for this to work well. You can use a straw or a PVC pipe about a dime size in diameter. You want two, one for each side, and you put them in the corner doesn't matter if the front side or rear side. But you need them to go to the bottom, but before you put them there you want to have an angled cut like "\" but more of an angle. Then what you do is you put it in the corner and then put the bedding around it(this is why I'm not sure if Eco Earth will work because it may just clog it, but then again it may work better than expected) and then you put enough substrate to cover up to the top of the PVC pipe and then from there you can just pour some water down the tube and the UTH will start to evaporate it and in turn it'll raise your humidity and it should raise it by 15% if not more, depending on how you set it up. I had an UTH on both sides so that way it evaporated quicker to raise the humidity even higher and in turn I poured a little more water. I think I kept her in a 65 gallon long and if I'm not mistaken I poured probably about 5-6 cups every 2-3 days depending on how it looked and I mean this in the strictest way possible that you want to check closely to make sure you're not getting any kind of mold or anything, which I never did but I always checked thoroughly, and every other week I rotated the substrate out so I could check on the very bottom and that way the substrate that stayed damp/wet had a chance to breathe. I also would move something over both PCV pipes so that way you're snake isn't tempted to stick it's head down there and because yours is so small you may want to do even smaller then that, something less than the width of it's mouth. Please just keep a close eye until you situate exactly how much water and the temps and everything, also the added UTH to the other side should help raise the ambient temps and if you still need to raise them more you can get the heat tape tape and put it along the sides of the substrate which will help raise your ambient temperature as well.

Now I'm sure some people will comment on this but I've done it and it worked fine.

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Originally Posted by sho220

Would something like these work?


http://lllreptile.com/store/catalog/reptile-supplies/bowls-drippers-misters-and-humidifiers/reptile-misters-drippers-and-humidifiers/-/exoterra-tropical-fogger/
http://lllreptile.com/store/catalog/...isting-system/
http://lllreptile.com/store/catalog/...sting-machine/
http://lllreptile.com/store/catalog/...um-humidifier/

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I can't speak for snakes but when I'd mist the enclosure for my Anaconda sometimes just to dampen the top of the substrate and spray her, she would move around a bit but seemed to not have an issue with it, on the other hand if I mist my Rufous Beaked Snake enclosure and the water hits them, they run for dear life. That may or may not stress her out, maybe somebody else could chime in on that.

I've looked into the misters/foggers and see very mixed reviews. That being said, it's on the list of things to try.

I'm quite interested in the under substrate idea. Adding a cap would prevent her from taking a journey I might not approve of. I do wonder... Perhaps if ran along the three sides on the side <one extra elbow or perhaps a 't' at one bend that could be capped and serve as a fill spot..but that is easy> of the enclosure with the uth and very small holes drilled into the top of it. Not sure it really needs to be covered completely. A small enough diameter pipe in black would not be very visible. Could also pack the cypress mulch along the sides to 'hide' it.

Gonna let the hamster wheel turn in this idea and perhaps make a trip to Home Depot in the morning if I can convince the hubby he needs yet another 'project'. He is already starting the designs for her 'forever tank' so will need to approach with caution ;).

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Originally Posted by MsMissy

I've looked into the misters/foggers and see very mixed reviews. That being said, it's on the list of things to try.

I'm quite interested in the under substrate idea. Adding a cap would prevent her from taking a journey I might not approve of. I do wonder... Perhaps if ran along the three sides on the side <one extra elbow or perhaps a 't' at one bend that could be capped and serve as a fill spot..but that is easy> of the enclosure with the uth and very small holes drilled into the top of it. Not sure it really needs to be covered completely. A small enough diameter pipe in black would not be very visible. Could also pack the cypress mulch along the sides to 'hide' it.

Gonna let the hamster wheel turn in this idea and perhaps make a trip to Home Depot in the morning if I can convince the hubby he needs yet another 'project'. He is already starting the designs for her 'forever tank' so will need to approach with caution ;).

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Yea, I've done it with no issues at all. The reason I say 3-4" of substrate is so that way the top stays dry unless you mist it. I at one point thought I had a write up on it but I don't know where it went or if I even had posted it on this site or not. I hope this works out as well for you as it did for me. Just make sure you don't keep the top of the substrate wet all the time, it's okay to dampen it sometimes, because it can cause scale rot.

Missy,

I live in 29 Palms and the humidity here absolutely sucks. I use large water bowls, and spray in everyone's tubs in the evenings. Been doing this for years now and it works just fine. I also keep small water bowls around in the snake room, and fill them up when they get low. Humidity stays ~ok in the room, but with the large water bowls and a good spray in the evenings, it works out.

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Originally Posted by Coopers Constrictors

Missy,

I live in 29 Palms and the humidity here absolutely sucks. I use large water bowls, and spray in everyone's tubs in the evenings. Been doing this for years now and it works just fine. I also keep small water bowls around in the snake room, and fill them up when they get low. Humidity stays ~ok in the room, but with the large water bowls and a good spray in the evenings, it works out.

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OP's reply in post #5 >> "I refuse to do a tub, call me prissy but a tub simply is not going in this room."

Plus she's using over head heating right now.

What are the temps in the room? I live in Vegas and my 3 larger snakes are in 55, 40, and 29gal tanks. My baby Dumeril's is in a tub. I keep the room at 78-79 degrees around the clock and only use a UTH on all of my tanks and the tub. Humidity in the room is normally around 20%. Cool side stays at room temp or slightly higher and hot spot is 90 degrees. My screen tops are covered with black plastic garbage bag material taped around all the edges with only a very small opening over the hot side for ventilation. I use cypress for bedding, provide a large water bowl, and mist it a few times a week. Humidity stays between 50-70% at all times.
If you just maintain your room temp at around 78 degrees you'll be just fine. Overhead heating with an open screen top is the devil here in the desert....just like the sun and that damn blast furnace wind we get here. Ditch the overhead lamp, seal up the top, and use a UTH on a thermostat.

The under the substrate I how I used to deal with humidity issues my solution is very similar less refined. I placed a plant saucer under the cool side and filled it with water then eco earth on top covering the saucer, I banked the substrate using a large water bowl to help hold it in place so the cool side had 3-5 inches (5 at the side dropping to 3 or so) the hot side normal. The water mass evaporates holding a steady RH. When the lower level looks dry I just poked a finger through the substrate to the saucer (the type that goes under plants http://i00.i.aliimg.com/photo/v0/111...ant_Saucer.jpg) and poured room temp water in to fill it up. that would hold for a few days.

Misters only raise the RH for a few hours if there is good ventilation so it is not a practical solution. It doesn't last at all.

The sticky bit. Relative Humidity is relative to temperature. Ball pythons need 60% @ 80ºF ambient to shed this is 15.5 gm/m3 of water in the air. This is absolute figure.

RH is the % the amount of water the air has relative to the max amount of water the air can hold. Warm air holds more water. If you live up north the air at 90%RH and 0% rh is so close to the same as to make no difference.


75ºF BPs need RH of 72% to shed properly. (15.5 gm/m3 same amount of water as 80ºF @ 60%)
77ºF BPs need RH of 68% to shed properly. (15.5 gm/m3 same amount of water as 80ºF @ 60%)
80ºF they need 60%
82ºF BPs need RH of 57% to shed properly. (15.5 gm/m3 same amount of water as 80ºF @ 60%)
84ºF BPs need RH of 53% to shed properly. (15.5 gm/m3 same amount of water as 80ºF @ 60%)
88ºF BPs need RH of 47% to shed properly. (15.5 gm/m3 same amount of water as 80ºF @ 60%)

Often people in warmer areas fret about getting 60% but it is not always so concerning. Most of my enclosures are kept at 83ºF ambient and I run 50% RH all the time and just bump it up to 55% for sheds no problems ever.