humidity

Ok so i just bought my first ball python last monday. I had humidity problems so i switched my substrate to cypress mulch and it still dries out quickly and humidity goes back down. I have to soak the substrate 3 times a day to get a decent humidity level. Its in a glass tank with a screen top. Any help would be appriciated.

What type of heating are you using?

Cover about 3/4 of the screen with foil tape or a damp cloth. Also having a large bowl of water closer to the heat source will help.

In my 40gal tank I have a hard time keeping it over 45. I added moss to the hides and will mist that every few days and during a shed I will keep it damp. This creates a micro climate of high humidity within the hide, and since it is also where your bp will be most of the time they benefit greatly from it.

How or what are you using to read your humidity?

You'll never be able to hold a consistent humidity level in a glass aquarium. They're made for fish, not reptiles; yet people continue to use them...in your case, you're learning new things so don't think I'm attacking you. Instead of doing a bunch of work to keep the humidity up in an aquarium, buy a sterilite tub at wal-mart for $5. Punch some holes in it (I use a soldering iron, or you can use a drill). Paper towel substrate. Water bowl. Hide. UTH on a thermostat. You will never have to mist, use a moist hide, moss, cypress mulch, plastic wrap, wet towel, etc...perfect humidity with zero work. :) Also make sure you're using a digital hygrometer and thermometer.

^ Definitely switch to a tub! Use aspen, newspaper, cutting paper, or any other type of substrate you want (That's acceptable for BPs). I use a small waterbowl, I use carefresh, it keeps the humidity up, but make sure to have holes in the tub, but put a base amount, and then put more with humidity check after every hole or two hole! Happy hut making. c:

tubs hold humidity really well to tell you the truth. much easier, when I was younger we had a ball python in an aquarium with a specially made sliding lid, the sides of the lid were still mesh though so it made it hard to keep humidity in. Now that I keep my guys in the tubs, the humidity is always right where it needs to be.

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Originally Posted by BallChick

You'll never be able to hold a consistent humidity level in a glass aquarium. They're made for fish, not reptiles; yet people continue to use them...in your case, you're learning new things so don't think I'm attacking you. Instead of doing a bunch of work to keep the humidity up in an aquarium, buy a sterilite tub at wal-mart for $5. Punch some holes in it (I use a soldering iron, or you can use a drill). Paper towel substrate. Water bowl. Hide. UTH on a thermostat. You will never have to mist, use a moist hide, moss, cypress mulch, plastic wrap, wet towel, etc...perfect humidity with zero work. :) Also make sure you're using a digital hygrometer and thermometer.

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A tub will work but they are not very nice to look at. Having one snake you can make the tank work and I don't think it's that much work. I Check my snakes daily usually several times and have a bottle close by for a little mist. It's not hard. If we are recommending new enclosures and you like being able to see inside then pvc is the way to go.

Just adding the moss to the hides will probably give you what you need. I have great sheds using that trick.I also like using it because it adds security to the hide. I place it just inside the door so they can crawl through it and then it acts like a door. It stops light from getting in and makes the hide more snug without actually making the hide smaller.

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Originally Posted by BallChick

You'll never be able to hold a consistent humidity level in a glass aquarium. They're made for fish, not reptiles; yet people continue to use them...in your case, you're learning new things so don't think I'm attacking you. Instead of doing a bunch of work to keep the humidity up in an aquarium, buy a sterilite tub at wal-mart for $5. Punch some holes in it (I use a soldering iron, or you can use a drill). Paper towel substrate. Water bowl. Hide. UTH on a thermostat. You will never have to mist, use a moist hide, moss, cypress mulch, plastic wrap, wet towel, etc...perfect humidity with zero work. :) Also make sure you're using a digital hygrometer and thermometer.

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A tub will work but they are not very nice to look at. Having one snake you can make the tank work and I don't think it's that much work. I Check my snakes daily usually several times and have a bottle close by for a little mist. It's not hard. If we are recommending new enclosures and you like being able to see inside then pvc is the way to go.

Just adding the moss to the hides will probably give you what you need. I have great sheds using that trick.I also like using it because it adds security to the hide. I place it just inside the door so they can crawl through it and then it acts like a door. It stops light from getting in and makes the hide more snug without actually making the hide smaller.

Tanks may be nicer to look at but they are just to much work in my opinion. I used to keep my bp's in tanks but after struggling with temps and humidity I built a rack and bought some tubs. Now my snakes are very happy, shedding and eating consistently.

Well i just dropped a lot of money in this terreriun so im gonna rry the moss idea first then if that doesnt work ill switch. Also i heard if you have like a stick or log from a pet store or something if you let it soak in water for an hour then put it in the tank it helps too. Thanks for all the help!

Also i use a UTH and heat lamp on one side and a light on the otger that i turn off when its night.

Can someone give me a good temp/humid gauge for my tank and also do ibjeed only one temp gauge or multiple?

One more thing! Should i or should i not spray my snake while i mist the cage once a day or will that stressbit out and rake the natural oils off him?

You should get rid of the light that's going to dry your tank up very quickly. Balls live in dark small spaces and do not require the light to bask in.

I spray my snakes down when they are in shed just to be nice lol

So far we've made a tank work and can't see any reasons why it wouldn't continue to work?.. We have about 2/3 rds of the screen covered with plexi-glass. We heat with a UTH hooked to a Hydrofarm thermostat for belly heat and the Zoo-Med Day/Night for ambient temps.. Substrate is cypress mulch
We use a Acu-rite thermometer/ humidity gauge from Walmart.. Just don't make the same mistake I did and think the probe measures humidity..Haha, it doesn't the sensor for humidity is on the back of the unit.. You have to put the whole thing in the aquarium..
We mist the tank every so often.. More often just recently when we noticed our snakes eyes had clouded over and she was getting ready to shed.. It really isn't all that much work and by all means isn't impossible to keep your BP in a aquarium and keep it healthy. I know some people swear it is impossible and so much hard work ! Really though for one snake, it takes maybe 5 minutes a day. If you're anything like us, you want to see the snake and decorate it's environment, not hide it in a ugly tub.
Good Luck, Bill

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Originally Posted by Kyle Khaos

One more thing! Should i or should i not spray my snake while i mist the cage once a day or will that stressbit out and rake the natural oils off him?

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I asked this same question.. Seemed like our BP liked it, but some on here said it didn't ? Ours would flinch a little when the 1st mist hit it's skin but then would turn her head up towards the spray.. Sorta like it was in the shower..Hahaha .. Anyways, some people soak there BP in water if they are having a bad shed, so I doubt a little mist is going to hurt it. Might piss it off for a few seconds though..LOL

Don't try removing the heat lamps to save some humidity. The moss trick will work just fine with the lamps. I have a ceramic heat element and a heat lamp on both my bp and my brb. I do use a fogger on my brb and am able to keep the humidity at 70%.

As suggested above the Accu-rite from Wal-mart is a good option for you.

As for misting. If your snake is out mist it. If you are misting the moss in the hide and your snake is there, mist it. You won't hurt a thing. Also during shed you can lift the hide and give the roof one mist spay. This will really increase the humidity in the hide for a few days.

As far as tank or tub. Yes, a tank can be more work. Depending on how much you decorate it will determine how much you have to clean. My tanks would kill most of the people here it seems. I have four naturalistic tanks but I enjoy them and don't mind taking care of them.

40gal bp

http://i1151.photobucket.com/albums/...g/P9160008.jpg

40gall tall brb

http://i1151.photobucket.com/albums/...007_122405.jpg

Thanks for the help. Im gonna try the moss trick with my next paycheck and maybe lay some pliglass on top of partnof tye screen top. If i dont use a regular like what type of lights should i use? Ill go purchase a accurite also but i have a poor UTh that i cant change the temp with so i was wondering whats a good uTh that i can buy to raise of lower the temperature?

I don't think any of the UTH have a built in thermostat like you're describing.. You'll have to pick up a thermostat separately . I've read that the UTH can actually burn your snake if it's temp isn't controlled, so be careful there.. We use the Zoo Med Day/Blue Red/Night lights for our ambient temps.. You don't need light with BP's but we use it for our ambient temps.. The red night light is nice because it doesn't disturb the day/night cycle the snake needs

Then how can you control the temp of your UTH. The UTH i have now only goes to like 80 degrees or so and its not very hot. I moved the substrate and felt the glass bottom and its not very hot at all.

I don't know there, might be your UTH then.. The one I have is a Fluker for a 10-20 gallon tank.. I have my thermostat set at 90.. The Fluker UTH was reading up over 100 it seems like.. I also have a Pro Exotic 2 Heat Gun that I can use to spot check temps in the tank.. Those are nice to have too. That's what I checked ours with

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I'm not saying you're wrong about the temp of your UTH, but remember our bodies are 98.6 degrees.. I would think if it feels kinda warm it might be higher than 80..??? Just guessing though

Tubs just substitute one issue for others especially in single snake set ups that are in normal rooms with normal room temps. Tubs heat very easily but they loose heat just as easily they can be very hard to hold ambient and cool end temps. Typically they only hold a degree or two over ambient room temps. If your room is 80 that is perfect if not it can be a problem.

Bigger water bowl and substrate choice can make a huge difference. I found that using coco coir substrate. Under the coolside I would a bury a plant saucer filled with water dry coco on top. This would increase the rh a bunch. Every week or so I would dig though the thick cool end substrate and fill the bowl. The hot side substrate is quite thin.


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One more thing... i see some people tin foil the screen lid? How do i go about that? Just wrap it and poke holes in it?

I have done two types.

First make a cardboard cutout to set on the screen with a window to allow the heat from the lamps to pad through. I took that cutout and covered it with foil. This has worked well and I like that I can just lift it off if I need a better look inside without opening the lid.

The second is buy foil tape from the hardware store and cut strips to cover about 3/4 of the screen. This has also worked well but is alittle more permanent. The tape does pill off without any problem if you need to.

Don't poke holes in it just leave a bit of the screen uncovered for proper ventilation.

Are you sure the uth only reaches 80. If so you need a different one. Your bp needs a hot spot of 90 to 94. The way you control a uth is hook it to a thermostat (tstat). A tstat is set by you to the temp that you need to create the proper temp for your hot spot. Without a tstat a uth can get very hot and burn your snake. Remember that if it feels warm to you it is probably to hot for your snake.

Working with limited funds you can get a hydrofarm tstat from Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-MTPR...owViewpoints=1

A better choice for more money would be a Helix or Herpstat1
http://www.spyderrobotics.com/produc...tat1Basic.html

Also a good thing to have is infrared thermometer gun to check the surface temps in your cage. They can be bought pretty cheap on Amazon as well.

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...t-Thermometers


This is an amazing threa that someone shared with me and I just purchased the temp/humidity gage an IRS working very well hope this helps

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Ment it's working we'll stupid auto correct...

How much substrate on the warm side do you have? My guess is too much. Many uth get far too hot (160+) there are a few brands that do not they usually only hit (100) ultratherms are one. Too hot to be left unregulated but not hot enough to cause burns easily. It sounds like this is the pad you have. If your substrate is too thick or the cool side / ambient temps are not correct. (80 or so) this type of pad is superior to the high density ones that get very hot they simply are far safer. What is the brand of the pad you have?


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Off hand i dont recall what the pad brand is. It came in a yellow box and was about $20. When i put my hand on the substrate on the "warmer side" i hardly tell a difference but i dont want to burn him because im limited.. well no cash as of right now until friday. I was also thinking of buying a more dependable huth. I saw something about flexwatt. Can someone give me some info on that as well as the ease of installation or should i just get a pad?

Flexwatt and most pads cannot ever be run with out a thermostat!! Get the thermostat first, try thinning out the substrate and see if that solves the issue. Ultratherm uth are the best I have ever tried I prefer them to flexwatt many times over as they are far safer. Flexwatt gets hot enough it can damage itself. It should not be run over 100 degrees this makes it in operation the same as Ultratherm pads and if the self regulating pad you have is not hot enough flexwatt will not help. They are the same not much difference they are lower density heater. They have been pre regulated to the max operational temp of flexwatt.

Did your packaging look like this? Is the edges of the pad clear with black lines in it? http://www.wharfaquatics.co.uk/prodimages/r3001.jpg

This is flexwatt
http://www.reptilebasics.com/images/products/11ht.jpg

You can see that it is basically the same.



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What is the cool side temp and the ambient room temp?


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Did it look like this?

http://www.wharfaquatics.co.uk/prodimages/r3001.jpg

There are a few brands of self regulating uth pads this is the most common. They due to density of heating elements and power limiting do not get hotter than 100 degrees. Hot enough they still need to be regulated but not hot enough to burn easily. These are some if the best on the market due to the added safety level they bring.

Flexwatt needs to be wired easily done if you know what you are doing and difficult if you do not. Flexwatt gets very hot (most flexwatt that is) it is able to get hot enough that it is able to damage itself the manufacturer suggests it not be run over 100 degrees above this it runs a higher risk of causing a fire.

Ultratherms are flexwatt pre-wired and limited for safety. This is why they are so good. This is flexwatt

http://www.reptilebasics.com/images/products/11ht.jpg

Point taken?

My guess is you have far too much substrate over the warm side it should be thin ish with a heavy glass tank if if your pad is as I guess self regulating it will take very little to drop the hot side temps to too cool. Many people here only use American brand uth that get very very hot and have not ever seen the european ones like Ultratherm a few retailers are leading the way and bringing in the safer better uth to the north American market.

What are your cool side and ambient room temps?

Usually the issue of too cool warm side temps is linked to too cool cool side temps as well. Remember temps come first over humidity snakes tolerate rh variations easily temp issues not at all get your temps figured out and then deal with the humidity. Temps regulate all bodily functions humidity is mostly just the ability to complete a shed unless coupled with other issues. (ventilation)


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No it doesnt look like that and im not positive what the ambient and cool side is becausebi have one of those crappy stick-on-the-side thermometer s/hydrometers. If it is anywhere near correct ambient is about 80 cool side im not sure but i also need to swap my light bulb for another type of heat bulb i think. I like that uth you reccommended i may get that.

May be consider what I've done, it's worked for me...http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...-amp-easy-fix!

Hope this helps & good luck! :)

A yellow box sounds like a Fluckers product. Is it a paper thin plastic uth? If so it is a Fluckers. They work fine but if you didn't read the box you missed the part where they need a foam backing to properly direct the heat. Once you set it up right you will get higher temps. They are designed to not go above 100 but can if you have a thick substrate that holds the heat. I set up a test with an unregulated one with 3-4 inch mulch substrate (blood python who borrows.) With that thick substrate it got to 116 at the bottom. I would always use a tstat even if the uth says or seems like it does not need one.

Yeah its a fluckers.

Put the suggested backing and it will work great. I really like the one I have.

Ill try that after i get my tstat

I have the Fluker's also.. Since we are using a glass tank I didn't use the Polystyrene mat.. I used the hvac tape ( aluminium tape from Walmart used for heating ducts) an taped the UTH outside bottom of the tank . I then spaced our tank up on the four corners to get air-flow under the tank.. I was told that if you didn't the UTH could overheat and crack the tank, some people even said catch on fire...? I'm not real sure on that though?
Anyways, we use Fluker's without the backing mat and it still heats the bottom of our tank.. I just checked before posting this and have 89.8 in my warm side hide and 80.1 on the cool.. It's chilly here in Indiana, so the room is about 73 degrees that the tank is in, so I think it is working

I know what ya mean i live in ohio so we got the same temps practically lol.

What kind of moss are yall using? where do you but it? Can someone post a pic og a hide w/moss? I have a tank and I think that would really help me out

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Originally Posted by KMG

Don't try removing the heat lamps to save some humidity. The moss trick will work just fine with the lamps. I have a ceramic heat element and a heat lamp on both my bp and my brb. I do use a fogger on my brb and am able to keep the humidity at 70%.

As suggested above the Accu-rite from Wal-mart is a good option for you.

As for misting. If your snake is out mist it. If you are misting the moss in the hide and your snake is there, mist it. You won't hurt a thing. Also during shed you can lift the hide and give the roof one mist spay. This will really increase the humidity in the hide for a few days.

As far as tank or tub. Yes, a tank can be more work. Depending on how much you decorate it will determine how much you have to clean. My tanks would kill most of the people here it seems. I have four naturalistic tanks but I enjoy them and don't mind taking care of them.

40gal bp

http://i1151.photobucket.com/albums/...g/P9160008.jpg

40gall tall brb

http://i1151.photobucket.com/albums/...007_122405.jpg

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I looked at the flukers specs it might be a rebranded Ultratherm it sure looks the same spec wise and visually. Same deal keep the substrate thin enough to provide correct temp or as close as you can and hook up the TStat when you get it. In a room as cool as yours is you must have heat and the pad you have if it stays at or below 100 will not burn you snake. ( a healthy rats body temp is about 104) it isn't great but better than nothing and respiratory illness.


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http://i1151.photobucket.com/albums/...010_180332.jpg

http://i1151.photobucket.com/albums/...010_180421.jpg

http://i1151.photobucket.com/albums/...010_180435.jpg

K thanks, and your tank looks really nice.. I am in the process of trying to find things to put in mine

And where is everyone buying there plants to put in tank?

My local Petco has the plants. The trick is to buy them when they first get them and are fresh. If you don't they are taken care of by the same folks that do the knock out job of carrying for the animals. They have told me that not every location carries them.

O well see I dont have a petco we have petsmart. Petco is about 50 miles from me. Are the plants live or fake & y do you have to get them when they are fresh?

All the plants in the substrate are real. Everything hanging is fake.

I have to get them fresh because they let them die because they don't water them enough.

Ah ok gotcha.. Would you mind sending me a pic of your setup im trying to get ideas on how to set mine up

If you go into my profile and then into my images all my setups are there.The pics are also bigger and better than when they are linked in a thread.

Ok thank you so much..

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and are you hanhing yours with suction cups?

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Originally Posted by shelby9189

What kind of moss are yall using?

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http://www.reptilebasics.com/substrate :)

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Originally Posted by shelby9189

And where is everyone buying there plants to put in tank?

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http://www.amazon.com/Hagen-Terra-Te...d_rhf_se_p_t_2 :D

Thank you!! :)