Humidity too high!

Hey guys,
Well I got my baby ball today :) She's a butter but also has a little pinstripe and yes, a She :) still haven't named her yet but it will come! haha
anyways so I'm keeping her in a plastic enclosure with holes on all sides, cypress mulch, driftwood, a hide, UTH, and water. I plan on getting another hide soon for her cool side. Anyways my question is, I live in Carlsbad CA and the humidity in my room is like 50? ugh no AC either. So with the cypress mulch her humidity is at like 70 :(. I tried using less substrate and putting more holes but it didn't work. Help!

Also, I got a thermostat from zoomed and it only says low, med, and high. Does anyone have one of these and which setting do you have it at? Right now mine is at a little lower than medium. Which still feels hot. So yeah, any input is appreciated :) Thanks!

I keep my normal humidity at 65-70. I suggest running a fan. Air circulation will help bring the humidiy down. But honestly, its not too bad as is.

it's now reading 76%.

70's shoud be fine .. but u can remove the lid thru out the day u can put her water away from the uth to if tis not already

A fan should work great. Have one in the room but not pointing directly at the cages.

Yea just fan the room now and then. I am having the same situation.

My humidity is almost always in the 70s. I've had my BP for about six months now and have had 4 perfect sheds. I'd say leave it be.

Okay very cool. thanks guys :)

it now says 84% D:

Hmm well you could switch to aspen or paper towels or something since you don't need cypress for the humidity boost it seems. Or put more holes? I've got a T8 and with aspen it keeps that 70s humidity range pretty easily. I can't imagine it with cypress mulch though. Overkill. Since you've got a plastic enclosure you should keep that humidity in pretty easily. Maybe just swap out the mulch for paper towels in the meantime? I've only been snake keeping for a 6 months or so, but that's what I would do.

I would switch to paper towels or newspaper, save the cypress for a time of year when there is less humidity in the house.

Let the cypress air dry. It comes moist out of the bag so if you let that moisture escape and dry out it will still hold humidity created by the water in the dish evaporating but will not start out wet already. Depends on the brand though, Zoo Med forest floor is very damp out of the bag.

First off, what are you using to measure the humidity? Quite a few off the shelf humidistats really aren't very accurate, as long as the humidity level isn't so high that she's doing the backstroke she should be fine

In my experience, those zoomed thermostats are a pain. You are just going to have to set it towards the lower end, let it stabilize, check the temps then adjust from there.

Thanks! I will definitely try that. I like the naturalness of the cypress so I'll try the drying out method first. Hopefully it works. Unfortunately I have to be in the car for six hours right now but I took her water dish out earlier so hopefully that helps a bit.
And I have a digital one from LLL. From what I can tell, it seems pretty accurate.

Here's a pic if anyone wants to see :)
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/07/08/najahe3e.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by alykoz

Thanks! I will definitely try that. I like the naturalness of the cypress so I'll try the drying out method first. Hopefully it works. Unfortunately I have to be in the car for six hours right now but I took her water dish out earlier so hopefully that helps a bit.
And I have a digital one from LLL. From what I can tell, it seems pretty accurate.

Here's a pic if anyone wants to see :)
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/07/08/najahe3e.jpg

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Nice butter!

Digital hygrometers are very sensitive to things like dust and dirt damage to cords ect. They work on micro resistance so anything that might make a tiny change in resistance will alter them. Testing is easy digital a purchased test kit (http://www.amazon.com/Quality-Import.../dp/B000A3UBLA) analogue a salt test will tell the accuracy quickly. (http://www.cigarsinternational.com/c.../29/salt-test/)

The other part is understanding RH.
Relative Humidity
The ratio of the amount of water vapor in the air at a specific temperature to the maximum amount that the air could hold at that temperature, expressed as a percentage.

Royal (ball) pythons need 15.5gm/m3 of water to shed properly. The RH value changes depending on ambient temps.

Lets use your numbers as the example.
RH 76%
@ ambient air temps of 75ºF that is 16.4 gm/m3 only slightly high.
@ ambient air temps of 70ºF that is 14.0 gm/m3 actually this would be too low.
@ ambient air temps of 80ºF that is 19.3 gm/m3 this is on the high side.
@ ambient air temps of 85ºF that is 22.5 gm /m3 that is fairly high
@ ambient air temps of 94ºF that is 29.3 gm/m3 quite high.

All of these a hygrometer will read 76% but ranges from bad sheds to good sheds.

At the end of the day high humidity (15.5+) is usually only a problem when coupled with poor ventilation good air flow helps prevent the over abundance of bacteria (ect.) that leads to health issues. If you have high RH the best action is just step up the cleaning and disinfecting cycles. When I have extended periods of high humidity, (today is reading 55% but the air temp is 87ºF :weirdface 17.4 gm/m3 high if it holds for more than a few weeks I'll start cleaning on a two week cycle rather than a 3+ week cycle.

it's gone down to the 50s now after drying out the cypress :) and I saved some still moist so I could add any if I needed. thanks for the help!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by alykoz

Thanks! I will definitely try that. I like the naturalness of the cypress so I'll try the drying out method first. Hopefully it works. Unfortunately I have to be in the car for six hours right now but I took her water dish out earlier so hopefully that helps a bit.
And I have a digital one from LLL. From what I can tell, it seems pretty accurate.

Here's a pic if anyone wants to see :)
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/07/08/najahe3e.jpg

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She's a pretty girl! Everyone pretty much covered your humidity questions. I do want to correct your nomenclature a little, though. She is a butter, but there's no such thing as "a little pinstripe". What you're seeing is just striping down her back, which isn't the same as a pinstripe gene. As I said before, though, pretty girl!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Annarose15

She's a pretty girl! Everyone pretty much covered your humidity questions. I do want to correct your nomenclature a little, though. She is a butter, but there's no such thing as "a little pinstripe". What you're seeing is just striping down her back, which isn't the same as a pinstripe gene. As I said before, though, pretty girl!

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thanks. yeah I realized that after I posted. I was confused cuz the guy who sold her said her mom was a pinstripe. what genes usually create butters? I tried looking it up but didn't really get a simple answer haha.

Butter is a basic mutation like albino or piebald. You don't combine different mutations to create one, either it is one or it isn't. Most people believe that butter and lesser are the same mutation, just different lines started by different wild caught imported mutants.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MarkS

Butter is a basic mutation like albino or piebald. You don't combine different mutations to create one, either it is one or it isn't. Most people believe that butter and lesser are the same mutation, just different lines started by different wild caught imported mutants.

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so it just comes out at random? I read somewhere that they can come from multiple different types (like lesser and pinstripe) but its a gamble. so like two normals can get together and make a butter? or what? haha sorry just confused