New owner and site member, BP Dehydrated from store.

[thejennabird]

Hydrofarms are only about $35 and have one plug-in for a UTH. They're considered a budget option, but I've found mine to be reliable so far.

[Spoons]

^^ that's the one I use too. It actually works very well for me. I'll probably upgrade later if I get more than 2 snakes or so, but it keeps my UTH exactly where I want it.

[Reed12321]

The hydrofarm is the one that I use and it keeps my UTH regulated within a few degrees. I have mine set for 90 degrees, and I've seen it as low as 87.5, and as high as 91.5. I have the probe taped directly to the bottom of the tank under the substrate.

As for your humidity situation, to help your humidity spike up, take a towel and dampen it. Then put the towel on top of the screen on the top of your tank. I've had my percentage drop down to 35% and I can spike it up to 70% within a half hour. Also, you can mist the tank a little with a spray bottle and water.

When I do the towel trick, I also put a tin cooking sheet over it to help hold in the moisture. Also remember, the more moisture you have, the more you'll be able to heat the tank because moist hair holds heat better than dry air. But keep it under 60% unless they're shedding.

[salt]

The hydrofarm is the one that I use and it keeps my UTH regulated within a few degrees. I have mine set for 90 degrees, and I've seen it as low as 87.5, and as high as 91.5. I have the probe taped directly to the bottom of the tank under the substrate.

Tape is generally considered a bad idea inside cages. Snakes can get stuck to it and suffer injury when you peel it off of them. Might consider going the hot glue gun route.

[Karokash]

I have misted the cage before and it doesn't change the humidity but again I haven't put the nice meter in yet. I think a cheap meter is part of the problem. But I will definitely try the towel trick as well as adding foil to the lid

[Karokash]

I have two hours left at work then I'm adding the new therm/hydro and the dimmer and foil.

[Karokash]

Alright guys I'm so lost right now. This is his current setup. I realized I didn't have foil so that's a wet towel on the left of the lid.

However
I cannot for the life of me get the humidity up! What am I doing wrong? I feel like I'm sweating in the room but it won't go above 35%


also the UTH is hooked to a dimmer now which is almost all the way off and I just got it down to 91. Why am I having such a hard time getting this setup to normal ranges. Is it normally this difficult for everyone?

[Karokash]

It would be one thing if each new thing I try produced a small improvement and I just needed to keep doing better but it's as if nothing i'm doing is making any changes at all. I feel like i'm either an idiot or just a horrible owner. I know I still need to switch to coco bedding and try the tin foil thing but I would have thought all of this would have at least shown a slight improvement...

EDIT: while still trying to avoid handling him, it does seem like the soak got rid of most of the loose shed, at least on his head. I'll try to get a hold of him later to look at the skin on his body and see if it's less wrinkly.

[Reed12321]

Okay here's the problem with your current setup. Your heat lamp needs to be on the same side as your UTH. That makes you have a pretty drastic difference between the hot side and the cold side. Second problem, you only put a towel covering 1/2 of your tank lid. Once you move your lamp over, either open up the towel more or add a second towel. That way, you keep the heat in as well as the moisture. Attached is a picture of my two tanks that I have set up. I have the upper tank on a thermostat and the lower tank is on a dimmer. The thermostat is way easier because its a "set it and forget it" type of thing. The dimmer I find I constantly have to check the temps because sometimes I'll make a micro adjustment and the temp skyrockets, and other time's i'll make a significant adjustment and the temp doesn't really change.

But you can see that I have my lamp all the way to the right which is also the side that the UTH is on. Normally I have a cookie sheet on top (which acts like your aluminum foil) but it covers the wet towel to keep heat in. If anything, I should have horrible times keeping my humidity up, but now that i've fine-tuned my setup, it's much easier. I live in an upper apartment with all bare-wood walls that absorb all of the humidity in the air and I can keep my tanks over 50% humidity.

As you can see on the lower tank I actually do have the cookie sheet. The UTH and the lamp are both on the left side (Hidden under the blanket). The blanket is only there to prevent my cat from staring at the baby Albino I have in the lower tank (I got her 2 days ago!). I also have a space heater. This is because that tank sits on the floor where it is notoriously cold. If I didn't have the space heater and only used the UTH and heat lamps, I'd barely be able to get the temps up to 75F.

If worst comes to worst, you could always buy a reptile humidifier: http://www.petmountain.com/product/r...nCgaArBE8P8HAQ

[Spoons]

I genuinely think the coco husk addition will be the thing that helps you out, if you're still having trouble. I soaked my brick of coco husk, squeezed out as much water as I could in a dry towel for the amount I was using and mixed it straight in with the aspen. It felt pretty dry to the touch, but the humidity spiked immediately within the day. Actually it got TOO high today, and I had to remove part of the tin foil and turn on the ceramic bulb to dry it out in there a bit. Give the humidity meter (if you haven't yet) a few hours for everything to settle and for it to get on par.

Misting is good for temporary humidty but it won't last unless it's got something to collect on - like the bedding. Just misting the air/walls doesn't do much, it evaporates immediately. My ball has a half log hide in the middle of the cage that I am considering soaking if my humidity drops, bark holds water pretty well. Another thread I was reading today suggested the wet moss not necessarily in a humid hide, but tucked in the corners of the cage to release humidity. The humidity is definitely the hardest part of the whole thing.