And by "leave him alone" you mean...?

The heat lamp is likely your problem. Heat lamps suck the humidity out like a darn sponge so best to avoid their use and choose other heating methods (belly heat is always preferred anyways above overhead lamps).

Hard to say how old the BP is. At that weight though it's unlikely it's a yearling though. Here's my four 06's if that helps for comparison (though with only the snake in each pic I know it's hard to see their actual relative size). They weigh in the range of 195 to 225 and were all hatched this year from four seperate sources from May to August. A run through our BP Pictures forum may help you view lots of other BP's of various sizes and ages and compare that to your BP. All grow at different rates though so two snakes of close age could be significantly different in size.

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=38886

The size you mentioned (18-20"?) would also suggest it's one of this year's babies. Mine is just over a year and weighs in at 1025g.

I also tend to suffer slightly low humidity so when shed time is here not only do I add a humid hide (which I put in the middle) but I also shove a bit of sphagnum moss into each of the other two hides also (no escape :D ) as well as spraying a few times a day.

Here's my yearling - with a small rat for size comparison (she's actually wider than it)
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...007_871169.jpg

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Originally Posted by LostElise

Yeah, I have no idea what to do about the humidity issue.

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I've been testing different substrates with each cleaning...what kind are you using right now? Aspen worked well in the summer, but became too dry while we had the heater on, so I've recently moved to the EcoEarth type stuff. That made a HUGE difference in my tank.

[QUOTE=jenakle]I've been testing different substrates with each cleaning...what kind are you using right now? QUOTE]

I am using newspaper right now just because it is easy to see when she poos. I would prefer something that she could burrow in and feel more comfortable with, but I haven't gotten any because I am afraid of lowering the humidity any more than it already is before she sheds.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

The heat lamp is likely your problem. Heat lamps suck the humidity out like a darn sponge so best to avoid their use and choose other heating methods (belly heat is always preferred anyways above overhead lamps).

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In the plastic container it was all belly heat, which i would prefer. The problem is that my flexwatt isn't enough heat. I would love to get rid of the heat lamp. It makes it hot as hell in the room the snakes in, which is also known as my bedroom. And I can't function at 85 degrees when I wake up at 8am. I have a 30gallon critter cage. It's 36x18x12. I have one foot of 11inch flex watt under it, but it doesn't touch the glass itself, about 1/4-1/2 inches below it. That doesn't really work for me. The cheap heating pad on low worked better, but I was too afraid of it shorting out and heating up too high. To achieve humidity, I lose heat. I get the right temp, I lose the humidity. I'm pretty much out of ideas and really frustrated.