Acu-Rite Problem...?

I went into my room to check temperatures... and Riley's acu-rite was reading wierd. The humidity reads "HI". What did it hit 100% or something???

Yes, make sure its not on that for more than a few minutes. maybe open the tub and let some ventilation come through?

mine reads HI whenever it gets wey, maybe it got wet somehow?

Ok I'm holding Riley.... letting her tub vent. the humidity dropped from "HI" to 80% and now won't fall any more. What can one do to drop the humidity. I don't understand this at all! It has maintained 50-60% since I got her 2 weeks ago....

That could be (that it got wet) because we just cleaned her tub... new aspen... fresh water and such... maybe a drop hit it? What can high humidity do to a snake (if it's not just wet?

scale rot, mold etc..

more than likely you just got too much moisture on the sensor. my boa spilled some water near the thing and my humidity read high until it dried off.

Is there condensation on the enclosure anywhere? Could the snake have peed or spilled water nearby or on the unit? I've had a probe read very oddly. Turned out the snake had a dump right on the probe that was tucked into it's warm side hide (btw a baby diaper wipe cleans the probe of feces w/o damaging it).

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

Is there condensation on the enclosure anywhere? Could the snake have peed or spilled water nearby or on the unit? I've had a probe read very oddly. Turned out the snake had a dump right on the probe that was tucked into it's warm side hide (btw a baby diaper wipe cleans the probe of feces w/o damaging it).

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No condensation anywhere within the enclosure. I switched out the Acu-Rite with another one last night and got a 63% reading for about 3-4 hours. When I woke up it was back up to 72%. I must mention that I live in Florida.. and well we have a humidity problem down here! The only other thing I can attempt (already made 14 more holes and put a fan right in front of it) is replace the bedding... or perhaps add more bedding (Aspen) (does is soak up humidity?

Actually Kyle try replacing the aspen with a few layers of newspaper. Give it at least 24-48 hours and watch your humidity to see if it changes enough. I know for us newspaper seemed to help with that issue (as well as being a dream to clean). It's not as pretty as aspen granted, but maybe try it for a week and see if it helps at all. Watch having that fan blowing directly on a snake's enclosure. While it might help with humidity, the direct draft it's causing isn't a good thing for the snake. Perhaps an overhead fan or one blowing more indirectly to move that stagnant humid air would be better or better yet, a small room dehumidifier (WalMart, Lowe's and Home Depot have small units for very reasonable prices).

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

Actually Kyle try replacing the aspen with a few layers of newspaper. Give it at least 24-48 hours and watch your humidity to see if it changes enough. I know for us newspaper seemed to help with that issue (as well as being a dream to clean). It's not as pretty as aspen granted, but maybe try it for a week and see if it helps at all. Watch having that fan blowing directly on a snake's enclosure. While it might help with humidity, the direct draft it's causing isn't a good thing for the snake. Perhaps an overhead fan or one blowing more indirectly to move that stagnant humid air would be better or better yet, a small room dehumidifier (WalMart, Lowe's and Home Depot have small units for very reasonable prices).

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I will definitely switch to newspaper for about a week and see if I can lower the darned hum. I did have a nice size fan constantly running in my room and everything was good! But it crapped out on monday.... so I need to goto wally world and look into either a new fan or a dehumidifier... or both! Thanks for all yor help Jo.

Anytime Kyle. I know we had some horrible humidity issues in northern Michigan a couple of summers ago and I was on this forum and on the phone with Adam constantly worried about the snakes. High humidity for short periods as long as there is no visible condensation on the enclosure and the bedding is still dry is not apparently a huge deal for these animals conditioned to life in a termite mound in Africa so you have time to deal with this.

Try standing your Acu-Rite on a surface in the room and get an actual room reading as far as temps and humidity over 24 hours. I found that doing that helped me adjust the room a bit which in turn helped my enclosures stablize quicker. Now I keep an Acu-Rite velcroed to the wall at all times to watch the room the snakes are in. Also always use the best quality batteries and change them out every few months. Acu-Rites don't run well I've found on cheapo dollar store batteries or once the battery runs low...the readings get a bit funky it seems. If you live feed remove the Acu-Rite as a live rodent will nip the probe cord (lost a few Acu-Rites that way before I clued in LOL).

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

If you live feed remove the Acu-Rite as a live rodent will nip the probe cord (lost a few Acu-Rites that way before I clued in LOL).

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:8:

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Originally Posted by JasonGranger

:8:

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I have had my BP wrap the chord while constricting a few times but i was able to remove it from the coil before she was able to swallow it. needless to say, i remove it anytime i feed

I have my cords out of the way so I hate to say I never really thought of any issues with them at first (this was back in our first months with snakes). Well until the dang live rodents went nip nip and my Acu-Rite was wrecked. Geeze why I never thought of that I'll never know! Hate when the rodents out think me! LOL