HELP!!! First Ball Python Issues

I am also using a 40g breeder, no UTH just a 100W CHE on a thermostat (set to 90) and 100W Night Blue on a dimmer (cool side ~81-83).

After a bit of fine tuning the humidity has become very easy to control and the temps only require a little fine tuning using the bulbs dimmer depending on the outside ambient temp.

Humidity control was done by covering the metal mesh lid with cardboard wrapped in foil, the only exposure to air being the lamp hood placements (With about 1in to spare around the edges of the hoods), easily up the humidity for about 12-24h by placing warm damp strips of towel or rags beneath the foil cover on top of the mesh lid. Oh and don't use ceiling fans in that room, it'll drop it to your rooms ambient almost immediately.

Doing that should prevent your substrate from getting too soaked (misting) which will help prevent scale rot, and won't force him to use moist hides (wet moss in all his hides) as the ambient humidity should be peachy.

Basically hot damp towel + low air exchange = Happy snake tank. - if you only have one lamp, you may have to experiment with the lids vent wholes, ours has one for each lamp each ~9in diameter.

** Also, strangely, and this may be superstition, but we've started placing a thin pillow against the wall of the aquarium wedged between it and the wall. I swear the thing gets warm and has boosted our temp about 1.5 degrees vs the same power without

Really it's pretty low maintenance, we're probably going to get a piece of plexiglass cut for the lid at some point to replace the cardboard+foil but it's working great on a budget.

Help! My space heater broke and now even with an under heating pad, her warm side isn't going over 75. I've been trying so hard to take care of her and I'm failing so hard.

You may want to get a high powered basking bulb. It'll get your Temps up but kill your humidity. What I did with my ball before I ditched lamp heating was get some eco earth and completely soak it put in your tank then put a dry layer of reptibark on top and it'll retain the water for weeks. Keeping your humidity high.
I keep my ball in a 36×18×18 tank and I read about 55% humidity.

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Originally Posted by About10Owls

** Also, strangely, and this may be superstition, but we've started placing a thin pillow against the wall of the aquarium wedged between it and the wall. I swear the thing gets warm and has boosted our temp about 1.5 degrees vs the same power without

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It's not superstition, it's insulation and it is a step in the right direction.



OP -This is why aquariums are not ideal unless you live in a nice sunny humid city year round. A lot of your heat is dissipating through the glass, it sounds like you spent a lot on this set up so an easy possibly free way to help with this is to cover the sides with some Styrofoam, even if it is only 3 of the sides. It's temporary and not pretty but it will work, if you want a pretty cage buy a front opening cage(PVC, melamine etc..). As you are finding out, it takes a lot of work to keep the temp and humidity in a aquarium and unless you have a colubrid, I would not recommend a aquarium for any beginner hobbyist for that reason.

You can get creative and use some Great Stuff on the outside and make it look like an inside out dart frog setup. For humidity there was some ideas thrown around in earlier posts, humid hide if humidity is low works great. An open top plastic container filled with Sphagnum moss and placed on the hot side works and you just have to dampen it every few days, again not pretty but it works.

- You can get a decent size bag of sphagnum moss from home depot in the orchid section cheaper then these reptile supply companies, it's the same stuff, same goes for the orchid/fir bark.

For anyone using a glass enclosure, I would recommend them getting a "versa top" to cover their enclosure to help maintain humidity and ambient temperatures. Also , with the "versa top" it is aesthetically pleasing to the eye while serving a two fold issue. Actually three fold bc it will help prevent escapes being a glass product that is heavy and covers the whole top of the enclosure. You will have to make holes into the plastic attachment that gets placed (slides) onto the folding glass for ventilation. You need to get the versa top that corresponds to your tank based on the gallon size. You will really be able to kiss your humidity problems goodby! Versa tops are sold at Petland, Petco, and Petsmart. They can be a bit pricey but pay off by so much in the long run. Lol. :gj: When I used glass enclosures I had a versa top on every enclosure. Now I use a rack system so no problem with humidity. Good luck.

Well as I said, I already have 2/3 of the top covered with plastic. I'm more worried about temp than anything right now. My pet store doesn't sell anything but the glass housings and I read that it really isn't too hard to keep warm if you have what I do. I'm just scared and confused as to why my luck is like this. She's going to freeze over and I'm going to be so sad...

check the temp directly under the lamp,i'm sure it is higher then 77 with a 100watt bulb. Again you likely read this setup works from someone who lives in a warmer climate or has a warmer room temp then you do, glass tanks do not retain heat very well even with the top covered.

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Grrr. It's warmer right under the lamp but she doesn't go up there most of the time because she's trying to sleep. I read about a million different people's experiences before I even got her and figured at least ONE of them was in a climate similar to mine. I mean her breeder obviously kept her okay.

I understand your frustrated, what you need to do is move her hide under the heat lamp until you get the temp and humidity squared away. Insulate the tank and once the heat is steady, you can work on the humidity. What is the temp under the lamp?

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Thanks but there's already a hide under the lamp. Under the lamp is where it's getting down to 75. I got an under tank heater the other day and the air temps are still around 75 but the hide is much warmer. The heat is hardly coming up through just the inch of substrate though. I don't want to move some because she could burn herself on the glass. I also got a new space heater with a thermostat last night and that seems to have helped. When I woke up (with the space heater at 70°) the ambient air on the warm side was at 90°. I'm guessing that meant her hide was too warm because she was sleeping under a vine on the cool side. I'd rather her have closer to good temps with the option to move and cool down than an entire room too cold and no way to warm up though. My boyfriend is buying me a ceramic heat bulb which I've heard works better than what I've had and also a foam insulator background.