New ball owner - Advice?

[Crawdad]

I hate to bump my own thread again, but I just wanted to say that those strip thermometers that the pet store people say are perfect are absolute garbage. I kept reading about how inaccurate they were, and went out and bought an Acu-Rite thermometer/hygrometer today, and man are they WAY off. My cool spot was only around 71f (instead of the 75-78 the strip was indicating) and the hot spot was down to 83 or so, not 91-94 like the strip said. Holy cow, I hope I haven't hurt my snake.

I cranked the UTH up, and have the hot spot at 93f now, and the cool side is at 74. Cool side may still be a little low, I'm wondering if I need to get another heat mat.

Humidity is hovering at 70-75% (it's over 50% in my house itself), so I've got to drill some more holes tomorrow, I guess. Argh. I'm wondering if a ceramic heat element may be the key to zap some of the humidity and provide some more heat. Can they be used with a tub?

[Didgie]

Haha, yep. We live in Birmingham, so I know what you mean -- I'm pretty sure that I could float my way down Red Mountain if I wanted. The rain has stopped so far this morning, but humidity is in the high 70%, and probably not dropping any time soon!

Thank you for the help everyone!

Me too! There's a snake show on Sunday from 9-3, at UAB Hill University Center. http://www.dixiereptileshow.com/

[Kaorte]

Lamps don't really work well with tubs. If you need to lower humdity, putting a fan by the tub can also help.

I would also add more holes