Humidity

First of all Welcome to the forums! Glad you joined us :) ... As for the temps, you should notice a temp increase. Any time you restrict the air flow into and out of any enclosed space the temps go up. The enclosure will retain heat easier and should allow you to drop your heating pad and/or light setting. What kind of setup do you have, substrate, tank or rubbermaid?

hi kidsnakedad, welcome! tell us about your snake and your setup :D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by led4urhead

First of all Welcome to the forums! Glad you joined us :) ... As for the temps, you should notice a temp increase. enclosure will retain heat easier and should allow you to drop your heating pad and/or light setting. What kind of setup do you have, substrate, tank or rubbermaid?

---

How much of a temp increase? We are going out of town for the wknd, but I want to put the plastic on before we go. I just got a hydrometer and found the humidity is in the 15-20% range. OTOH, I don'w want the heat increase to cook the snake while we're gone! He is about 14 inches, in a glass/screen top cage, with some kind of wood shaving substrate. There's some moss in the tank that I wetted down, a water dish, warm and cool hides, and I' using a red lamp bulb for heat. I had a heat pad, too, but that seemed too hot.

Thanks for your help.

One other question: last night, my wife was holding him, he moved, she got scared, and dropped him from about 4 feet high onto a rubber matted floor (it's my little boy's room, cause it's his snake. right. ) Anyway, any likelihood of injury from that? He does not seem to be acting weird that I can tell.

I'd be hesitant to make a change like that before leaving on a trip. It's hard to tell how significant an impact it will have on temps (too many variables to even give you an estimate sorry) but you definitely need to get the humidity raised. If you are using analog gauges to measure I'd reccomend snagging a $15 digital accurite at walMart - the disparity in readings the analog things present is frightening sometimes as much as 15 degrees/% humidity - also make sure you are gettgin readings from ground (substrate) level. As a stopgap solution I'd only cover half the tank and then reassess the situation when you get back - last thing you want is to come home to a cooked herp. You could also lay a moist towel on the screen lid but if you are using a bulb for heat it will dry out very fast.

hmm i dunno, nobody has ever dropped my snake before and when somebody holds him i am always close by just in case they are scared and drop him or somthing goes wrong. I guess just check him out and look at him when he crawls around and make sure he moves normally. Its possible he might have broken a rib (maybe i dunno) 4 feet is pretty high up.

Take a trip to WalMart before you go out of town and get an Accurite Digital thermometer/hygrometer combo. It has a probe so you can measure both cool and warm sides and will measure the humidity. Those analog ones from the pet store are notoriously very inaccurate and you may be cooking the snake. To deal with the low humidity, ditch the light as it just leaches out the humidity, and just use the heat pad, as they require belly heat for the best digestion. After you get the digital thermo/hygro, place the unit on the floor of the warm side and the probe on the floor of the cool side. As for the wood shavings, be very sure that they AREN'T pine or cedar, both of those can cause serious nervous disorders in snakes.

As for the fall of 4 feet, he should be ok, but just make sure his sides don't have any abnormal looking indentions indicating broken ribs and that his back is straight and aligned, with no abnormal crookedness. Being that he is a baby, and as all babies, he is probably made up of mostly cartilage, and will be fine.

Also, before ya'll go on your trip for the weekend, you might want to get a thermostat from the pet store so it will regulate your temperatures while you are gone and even when you are there so the enclosure won't get too hot or too cold. People have had good luck with ESU and ZooMed. Just make sure yours comes with a probe.

And next time anyone is holding the snake, just make sure they are sitting down and make slow movements. Ok, I'm sorry for making such a long post, I just wanted to include everything I could think of. :)

i use a heating pad under my tank, and it actually was too hot so i used a few pieces of wood to raise the tank a couple of inches off of the pad and that has worked really well. do get the accurite--i discovered my temps to be way off when i got one. i made the diy humid hide to help with humidity in my tank, and that has made a big improvement.

If the humidity is actually that low, you could try the DIY humidifier in the DIY section or get yourself a bigger water bowl. As far as the dropping is concerned ... as long as he doesnt show any outwardly visible or tactile ( when you touch him ) signs .. he should be ok. You may want to keep an eye out for something for a couple of days.

Quote:

---

One other question: last night, my wife was holding him, he moved, she got scared, and dropped him from about 4 feet high onto a rubber matted floor (it's my little boy's room, cause it's his snake. right. ) Anyway, any likelihood of injury from that? He does not seem to be acting weird that I can tell.

---

A friend of mine dropped my bp when she was just a baby. This is someone who has no experience with snakes at all, and I just watched him let her crawl right of of his hand and fall to the floor. Luckily she was ok. They're strong little guys...

where can I get a good hygrometer my temps are tight on and I would liek to know what my RH is can any one help ???