shedding question

[Chaossoldier11]

yeah, I know there are probably a billion of these threads and I apologize and yes I read the stickied posts.

My question is this: is there anything you can do to help encourage/enable a nice smooth one piece shed? My last BP 'Charlie' who has passed on... was a horrible shedder, always little pieces here and there and constantly needing "help". I now have a new baby 'Sammy' and I was wondering if there is anything I can do to try and prevent the same problems from repeating.

I have added a moss pit, ( just a big tub of damp sphagnum moss) for him to play in and to help keep the humidity up, right now it's at a pretty constant 70-75% and an ambient tank temp of around 85 that goes down to the mid 70's at night when the heat lamp is off (there is also an under-tank heater). The bedding is just standard aspen shavings.

SO, with all of that in mind, is there anything else I can do to help ensure a nice normal shed?

[reptidude1]

Get rid of the heat lamp and stick with a uth, heat lamps suck out the mouisture, also is he in a tub or tank? If tank u can cover some of the screen with aluminum foil, put the water bowl closer to the heat or even giv ur bp a soak

[Chaossoldier11]

The heat lamp has been added recently, charlie never dealt with it.
And the problem with the uth is that the ambient tank temp and humidity were WAY to low. so we had to do something.

Would a infrared heat emitter ceramic thingy be any better than a normal heat bulb?

[Kaorte]

CHE's still suck humidity out of the air.

What are you measuring your humidity with? If you are using a dial gauge, then it is probably giving you an inaccurate reading. First step is to get a digital hygrometer and thermometers with a probe. The best solution to this is to purchase the accurite weather station from home depot, lowes, or walmart. It is around $11 and is all you need to measure temps and humidity in your enclosure.

That being said, you should have a hot spot of 90-94*F right over the UTH under the substrate. Your ambient temperature should be constant at 80-85*. Either get a CHE or a red bulb and leave it on 24/7. That low of a night drop can be dangerous.

You live in an area with pretty low humidity, especially in the winter months. Unfortunately, there are only a few things you can do in a tank to improve humidity.
-Try covering 3/4ths of the screen lid with aluminum foil tape (found at the home depot). Leave a space for the lamp.

-Larger and deeper water bowl. Don't place it directly over or under a heat source, just right in the middle.

-Humid hide. Put some sphagnum moss in either the hot or cool hide, replacing it as needed. Balls spend most of their time hiding anyway so this will assure that he gets enough humidity.

I hope this helps you get started