water dishes

how big of water dishes will i need to maintain 60-70% humidity in my terrarium? medium, large or extra large? will i have to mist the terrarium alot?

Do you have it setup now and if so with what? And what is the humidity currently at? If not I would say try setting it up as if you would with your snake and see the results and tweak it tilll you get there.. when I used my old one it took a lot of tweaking to get it steady.

considering the amount of space i have, then adding the hide boxes, im limited to medium size water dishes...hopefully that'll be big enough to maintain the 60-70% humidity i'll need.
if not then i might have to mist...do i mist the substrate or the glass sides of the terrarium?

i dont have anything set up yet but im writing it all down so i will know what to do when the time comes...

i always do the planning ahead of time.

I think the best way to get it all down is to set it up I'm sure many have had different experiences in maintaining their husbandry in a tank so yours may differ and writing everything down is a great idea but id say te full proof way to know for sure is to go through it with it setup. But a medium dish may help and as far as misting i just misted down into the bedding but of course some water will end up onthe walls. What you can also do to help is a humid hide with spahgnum moss (spellcheck?)... I think you could also use beaked moss (correct me if I'm wrong). You could also put the water dish patrially above the heat pad as well and cover the screen top with foil. And tweak it all from there.

water dish over warm area, foil over screen, moss...gotcha, thanks.

now for the moss...do i stick it under the hide boxes & get it wet or scatter it around the terrarium & get it wet?

In a glass tank you could have a pool and it wouldn't do anything for humidity. Like chased said, if your resorting to a tank, use somthing to cover up 80% of the screen, such as plexiglas or foil. A prettier and less hassle method is to provide your ball with a PVC style cage that has glass doors on the front and side ventilation instead of top. You can find one in a suitable size for a ball for under $200.
I'm not a fan of misting, but if your misting to keep humidity up, keep it to a minimum, and make sure your enclosure isn't WET.
The best use for the moss would probably be a humid hide. Pick a hide in the middle area and keep the moss damp.
Also, I would take the water dish off the heat pad, your just going to facilitate faster bacteria growth, and in a tank its unlikely to help with humidity anyways.

ah ok thx

Every one has great advise. I am going to add my 2 cents worth too. I placed the water dishes on top of hides this saves floor space and I have two water dishes on on each hide. It also gives weight to the hide so it won't topple over. My hides are upside down plant saucers (plastic) and the water bowls and smaller plant saucers that are ceramic glazed ones. I use eco earth and cyprus mix substrate that helps with humidity. I have very low humidity where I live. Now for my secret, ROCKS. I have two real rocks one in the enclosure and one out when the humidity starts to drop I soak the out one in water for a day then switch them you can bake them to sterilize them. The rocks are poreous and absorb water then slowely release it. It keeps the humidity up for 3 days or so then it starts to fall and I'll switch them out. I personally use raindow stone but fine textured sedimentary rocks would work too. Not too hard as they don't take up as much water. If it bubbles in water it will work if it just sits there like well a rock maybe not.
Alex

OP: You won't necessarily have to do any of these things depending on the normal humidity of your house. The only way to figure out what you need to do is to set it up and experiment.

If you don't use a lamp, chances are you won't have any problems with humidity. You might have to mist during shed to bring the humidity up, but that is about it. When I mist, I just do a light spray over everything. Nothing is sopping wet, just lightly dampened.

The water bowl size helps a little bit, but not enough to really make a difference, same with the moss. The moss will not really increase the over all tank humidity, just humidity in localized areas. If you do have problems with humidity you can set up a humid hide in addition to the two hides you have.


Go with the medium or small water bowl. That will be more then enough.

i figured i'd go with 2 medium bowls, one on each side same as the hide boxes.
thanks

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mommanessy247

i figured i'd go with 2 medium bowls, one on each side same as the hide boxes.
thanks

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But you don't need two water bowls. As mentioned before, its not going to help the humidity that much.

I agree with Kaorte 2 bowls don't do much for humidity I use it to keep the hides staying put. The rooms humidity will be the biggest issue. In my case the general room humidity is usually sub 20% in the winter the summer it goes up to the 50% range. I have loads of issues during the winter the summer I almost don't need to do much. Set up your enclosure water in the bowl(s) and see what you get after a few days then try one bowl wait and see. Keep trying this or that to see what works for me the moss I tried dried out super fast and didn't really make much of a difference so I used the rocks that are much slower to dry out in the extra low conditions I have that worked for me it may or not work for you. Test things out before you add a snake, things have odd effects sometimes I found that when I got the humidity right the temps tanked on me I kept tweeking things until it balanced out a bit of patience now will save stress for you and the snake later!
A

oh ok thanks

Should water dishes be large enough to allow the snake to soak in?

I think they should be i know my balls like to soak :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by reno-cg

Should water dishes be large enough to allow the snake to soak in?

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They don't need to be, but it is okay if they are. Usually a ball python will only soak if it has mites, feels unsafe in its hides, the humidity is too low, or if it feels bloated from a large meal or poo.