HELP! Ball Python Care Question

I have a 3 month old male Clown Ball Python. I am having issues regulating both his temp and humidity levels. I have him in a 30 gallon glass screen top cage...this is what I prefer. I have an under the tank heater on the hot spot with a hide cave above it and a 150watt ceramic dome heater on top of the screen. I have 3 thermometers, one of which includes a hygrometer. The probe where he lays reads about 82-84 degrees under the cave. Is this warm enough? The basking log above the cave is warmer im sure. The hygrometer in the middle of the can read as low as 20 percent or up to 70 percent when my fogger is on. Also the cool side gets as low as 65 degrees. I can't seem to keep the heat up when the fogger is on and if its not on my humidity drops too low but my heat is good, up to about ambient of 88 degrees. I don't know if I need another heat source or what. He doesn't seem to be stressed out. He ate very quickly for me today and drank a lot of water. Any recommendations are greatly appreciated. I am new to this kind of animal. I just love him and want to keep him as happy and healthy as possible.

Is your uth on a thermostate and what kind of substrate are u using, also is your screen top fully open or partially covered

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Pictures of your setup would help. Also, do you have a thermostat controlling how hot the UTH gets?

Where is the probe you are getting your temp readings from? on top of the substrate or down below?

You are not going to be able to use a fogger without compromising temperatures. Their primary selling point is they use COOL mist. Get part of that screen covered (or most of it) to keep heat and humidity in. What is the ambient temperature of the ROOM that the tank is in, and -seconded- what is the actual temperature of the UTH?

I'm not an expert here, but those temps are WAY too low.

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Originally Posted by HardCorps2004

I just love him and want to keep him as happy and healthy as possible.

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Then get him out of that glass tank and put him in a PVC enclosure or a tub. A glass tank will ALWAYS be a compromise to either heat or humidity.

I know you stated that the tank in your preference, but if you really want him to be as happy and healthy as possible, you need to cater to his preference.

I have half the lid covered. Got my temperatures up last night. Trying to make some changes to adjust. I do have a thermostat to the heater under the tank. It is set on the high setting. No specific temp gauge.

The probe is laying on top of the substrate

It is partially covered. I'm using cypress and I do have a thermostat just set on high for the under the tank heater

You'll want a better thermostat that sets a specific temperature, rather than a rheostat (which is what it sounds like you have).
I personally wouldn't have gone with a fogger, but rather would have added a couple humid hides (damp sphagnum moss). That would have saved you a LOT of money. I had glass vives as well before switching to PVC. I switched because I liked the aesthetics, not because of the way it works. To be honest, I found it easier to maintain the glass enclosures... but that is because I have two different species sharing a vive with a divider!

I had absolutely no issues with the glass once I got my set up figured out. What kind of heat bulb do you have? I suggest either a red bulb or a straight up heat emitting bulb. You'll want to keep those on 24/7, so there are no night drops.

If the cool end drops to 65F, your home is also that cool (or cooler). Simply put, the easiest way to fix this would be to turn up the heat in your home. If that is not an option, you can either add a second heat lamp with a low wattage heat bulb - although with a UTH and high wattage bulb already, I personally wouldn't go for this as your vive is dried out enough as it is - or get a small heater for the room the snake is in.

Best of luck!

I have a glass tank as well -- it sounds like your on the right track. My cool side was getting cool like yours was/isl, so I added a second smaller UTH to the 'cool side'

I have a Hydrometer Thermostat set on each UTH, with one keeping the hot side at 90, and the other side in the low 80s. My only 'above' heat source is a 50 watt 'night' bulb that I have running 24/7. This keeps the ambient air in the 80s.

As suggested, if you find the fogger is messing with your temps too much, it might be worth seeing if you can return it and putting foil over the top with some moss in the tank (along with a big water bowl) to keep up the humidity.

My two cents!

I think something is off here if you're saying your ambient temps get up to 88. That's too high for ambient. You want to shoot for around 80 ambient temp, with a 90ish degree hot spot. If the ambient temps are 88, your snake will not have anywhere to escape the heat to cool down.

What kind of substrate do you have?
When I couldn't regulate my humidity properly I covered half the tank with tinfoil tape and changed the substrate.
I also put moss on the bottom of her cool hide and moss in front of her warm hide
(It was on the bottom but her hide is big and she dug up the moss to cover the entrance of the hide... security I guess)
And for heat I would put another uth on the other side or my one friend put a uth on the side of the tank.
He said it keeps his ambient temps up but I dont do that so dont quote me.

If you put the moss in the hides you dont have to worry about keeping the humidity throughout the tank up. The humidit will be high in the hides. Just go through and give em a good spray until the moss is moist. I use dead sphagnum moss but you can use real live moss... or artificial moss mats.

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Originally Posted by HardCorps2004

The probe is laying on top of the substrate

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IF you are getting 84 degrees on top of the cypress, depending on how thick it is would be willing to bet that mat is over 95 degrees.
You need to properly regulate you mat and work on raising ambient temps in the room.
Heat mats are not to heat the air, they are only to serve as a warm spot for your snake to lay and you don't want any area they can touch too hot.

I'm gonna go with the idea of bumping the heat up in the room. That's my next option. Things are starting to get better as I monitor and make adjustments. Thank you so much for your knowledge and advice.