Couple questions

We live in Colorado and the air humidity here is like zero and is super dry. I anticipate having problems keeping the humidity up.

Outside of the normal spray/water bowl on uth/cover screen what are some other measures that I can take to keep my humidity up?

We are going to purchase 2 baby balls, born from same breeder, within a week difference in age, either f/f or m/f, would it be ok to keep both of these babies in the same habitat?

We have a 50 breeder, which I understand may be a bit large but we will take measures to fill it up enough to make them comfortable. We do understand that we may get babies with the m/f pairing but are ok with that. We also understand that a m/m pairing could cause turf wars later and would never attempt to do this.

Thank you in advance for all of the information!

Tubs are a great idea if humidity will be a problem and those normal measures don't get the job done.

It's not recommended to keep more than one in a single enclosure for several reasons. You run the risk of cannibalism (extremely rare, but real), and if one gets sick and has a regurge or some sort of odd stool it can be impossible to tell which. There's disease transmission, but if you're getting them from the same place that's probably not an issue. If they are a m/f pair, you run the risk of premature breeding which could seriously endanger your female's life.

You can divide the big tank with some sort of sealable, nonporous material like glass, plexiglass, any plastic, really. If they're hatchlings, a 50 or even half that will be HUGE to them.

I really do recommend small tubs (like, 16qt) as a solution to all your possible problems. Good luck and make sure you have a thermostat!

^^^^ What he said. We also purchased a room humidifier at walmart for like $30. It helps out a lot. Good luck! Can't wait to see the new ones.

We use cypress mulch to help with the humidity in our enclosures in Colorado. It can get wet and not mold. I would also recommend small tubs to start with for each of your new babies. When they get bigger you can then make the decision to put them into a display tank, remembering they might have issues with feeding when they live in such a large tank.

That sounds good. We have a saltwater tank and there is a place in town that cut us three 1/4 in glass panels to make a sump for a 40 breeder so that is what we will do for this tank too....just have a divider cut and seal it in with aquarium sealant.

Will then cover the ends and leave the hole for the ceramic heater we have in the middle and also place the UTH in the middle under the divider.

We have small children and a glass tank is just more practical for us.

Just be aware that hatchlings may not be willing to eat in such a large enclosure and that heat and humidity will rise to the top of the very tall tank. And if the snakes are well taken care of, the children will probably never see them.

What is this ceramic heater? It sounds like it might be a heat rock and those are definitely NOT safe for ball pythons. Or is it a Ceramic Heat Emitter lamp type thing?

I also live in Colorado. I'm also a new BP owner :) I used to have a lot of trouble keeping my humidity up when I was using a heat lamp. I sprayed 3 or 4 times a day to keep the humidity close to 50%, and the humidity would drop pretty quickly after I misted.

After removing the heat lamp and adding a 2nd UTH, one for the cool side and one for the warm side, I have no more trouble at all. I have a piece of foil that I use to cover the top of the tank. It covers about half and I fold it to cover less or open it to cover more depending on the weather. With all our recent rain, I left it completely off.

The thermostat for the UTH is very important. My UTH got up to 130 degrees without one. Scary!

we keep ours in tubs but we also use a house and a room humidifyer............we also use swamp cooler in the garage keeps humidity around 50-60.
we live in nevada and we also have low humidity isuues here
hope this helps:gj:

The ceramic heater is not a good idea. It has the tendency to dry out the air. Use just and UTH, 2 if you need one on the cool side as well as the hot side. Ceramic heaters heat up the air and dry out the air at the same time. Large water bowls also help with humidity. Good luck

Thank you all for all of the information.

We have gotten some cypress mulch and are going to get everything set up with the water bowls and other things and play with the set up a bit. We will purchase the therm/hydrom today so that we can make sure things are where they need to be. We will run it for a while so that we can tweak each aspect. This way we can get it down to a science before we even get a snake in there.

Know there will be some variables that can't be accounted for without the snake in there but it will be much better than trying to get it ALL tweaked after the snakes are in.

Also we went to a local reptile store and were told that we should absolutely under no circumstances use under tank heaters because snakes soak up heat from their backs and they are no use to the snakes. Please lend your thoughts on this statement.

Hi,

It's utter twaddle. :rolleyes:

Just remember the thermostat and your snakes will do exceedingly well with UTH's providing the correct temps.


dr del

I am a new BP owner myself, but I have been doing research for a while now, and here are a few suggestions on heating IMO.

1) An UTH with a thermostat is the best heat source as you can directly control the temps and BPs need the UNDER BELLY heat to help with digestion.

2) If you use a ceramic heat emitter or heat bulb, keep in mind to monitor the temps INSIDE of the hide, as a light shining down on the top of the hide will heat up the inside to much different temps than what is either outside or under it.

3) If you are using an espceially non-conductive substrate with a thermostat-regulated UTH, using a low wattage light bulb set to a few on/off cycles over the hot side will help control your ambient temps (both inside and outside hides), regulate the humidity better than just the light, and help the day/night light cycle if your tank is backed and does not have good ambient lighting in the room. My 40W bulb is even plugged into a rheostat to ensure nothing overheats.

4) If you continue to have humidity issues with the cypress, you can place some lightly damp sphagnum moss in a hide or scattered throughout the substrate to keep humidity up. Just make sure that it does not remain damp at all times, as it can cause blisters and RIs.

Hope this helps some!

I live in NM where our conditions are almost identical to CO except even warmer. I will be totally honest with you, in glass tanks it is nearly impossible to keep the humidity anywhere near what it should be. I use coco tek, spray the cages daily, and run a humidifier in my snake room and I am still lucky if I can pull 60% humidity in the glass cages. However, in tubs, it is much much much easier. I know its not as nice for viewing, but ultimately you want what is best for the snakes, not what is the prettiest for you.

As for heat, the UTH work fine so long as you have them on a thermostat. Ball pythons need belly heat, not back heat. Usually your best bet is not to trust what pet store employees say, as they aren't experts, rather just $10/hr employees. Always double check for answers like you have on here :)

Also, in the winter, the UTH may or may not be enough to keep your snakes cage temps correct, and at that rate you may need to add overhead heat as well, which will likely add to your dilemma in keeping the humidity where it needs to be.

As he said, "utter twaddle". :) Ball pythons especially need belly heat more than back heat. Their bellies are more sensitive to temperatures than their backs. They're nocturnal and live inside of giant termite mounds. They spend as much time inside them as they do inside their hides, so they really don't even need a day/night cycle (as long as it's mostly dark at night).

Don't trust pet stores. If you hang around enough you'll catch a few threads of general complaint about them, discussing the reasons for this and that and who's really responsible. Seems even if employees are knowledgeable, they are powerless to apply it, as it's the business people, not the animal people, who make the decisions. Of course, in your case the employee was not knowledgeable.

About where to monitor temps when using a CHE or heat bulb, the above comment make perfect sense, but if also using a UTH, I'd want to have a probe in the normal place as well (under substrate directly on glass/plastic). I've actually not yet heard the above warning, but it's probably worth checking out.

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Originally Posted by Morph Momma

Also we went to a local reptile store and were told that we should absolutely under no circumstances use under tank heaters because snakes soak up heat from their backs and they are no use to the snakes. Please lend your thoughts on this statement.

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I am not sure who you talked to, or which store you were in but this is not true. Just to make sure you understand you will want to mount the UTH on the outside, under the tank. This will prevent any electrical shock when things get moist inside the tank.

The cypress is a good choice, it can be misted and kept damp without it molding. Don't keep it soggy or they will get belly rot. You will see it get light tan when it drys out.

It's not impossible to keep your humidity up in glass tanks. I have a 20L glass tank and like I said, as soon as we stopped using the heat lamp, I've had no problems at all.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Morph Momma

Also we went to a local reptile store and were told that we should absolutely under no circumstances use under tank heaters because snakes soak up heat from their backs and they are no use to the snakes. Please lend your thoughts on this statement.

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Wow, that from a reptile store?
Absolutely amazing.

My thoughts...Run, run as fast as you can from that store :snake:

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Originally Posted by sarbear

It's not impossible to keep your humidity up in glass tanks. I have a 20L glass tank and like I said, as soon as we stopped using the heat lamp, I've had no problems at all.

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Yeah, but they're in a very dry climate with a much bigger tank. I did okay with humidity too, but the ambient in my apartment is near 50% and I had a 20gal.