HELP!!! First Ball Python Issues

[RiA MaU]

Hello everyone. I got my first ball python named Kayly just over a week ago. She's about 10 months old. I bought her from a local breeder. I live in western Colorado and it's the middle of winter, which means I'm having a really hard time keeping temps and humidity up. When it's warm enough it's too dry and when it's wet enough it's too cold. I have to use multiple full spray bottles of water a day just to keep it in the 40% range. Right now it's 88 degrees on the warm side and 58% humidity but that won't last long. It gets all the way down to 77 degrees sometimes if I'm not careful. I have a 40 gallon glass tank (which I know isn't the best for the humidity issues) and I have about 1/2-2/3 of the lid covered to keep heat/humidity in. I'm not 100% sure what my substrate is but I'll add that to the post when I find out. I have some wet paper towels tucked in one of the hides as I read that this can help when the overall humidity is hard to keep up. Even while I've typed it's gone down to 86 degrees and 54%. Also, I usually leave the space heater on in my room while I'm at work because the tank doesn't stay warm with it off but when I got home today, her warm side was at 99 and she was tucked into the coolest corner she could find. I felt so bad. Is there a way to help get a more specific control of that? Thank you!

[Eric Alan]

First off, congrats on your new addition and welcome to the site!

What are you using (besides a space heater) to warm up the tank? Also, what are you using to measure those temps and humidity? There are definitely ways to get better control of your temperatures, but we need to know where to start in our recommendations.

[KMG]

I still use a 40 gallon tank for my BP. I have a rack and some pvc cages but I really like the tanks so I still use two of them.

Getting your humidity up is not hard and you just need to employ one trick I found and have used now for a good while.

You simply add moss to the hides. During a shed I keep the moss moist and do no allow it to dry out. During regular times I make the moss moist and then allow it to dry out before making it moist again. This moist moss will boost the humidity inside the hide so it will benefit your snake the most since the hide is where is spends the most time.

The humidity in the rest of the tank will remain low but that is not important. Using this method I get perfect sheds for my BP and never have to worry about humidity levels in her tank.

Just break off a clump, make it moist, and stick it in the hide. It is truly that easy. It also adds to security by making the hide seem smaller and therefore more secure. This can be very helpful when your snake is between hide sizes and you have to use a hide that is larger than recommended.

http://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Med-Terrar...ds=zoomed+moss

[RiA MaU]

First, I'm using a fir and sphagnum peat moss substrate because I was told by my friend's mom and the owner of our local pet store from which I bought all my supplies that it would hold humidity much better than aspen shavings. I am currently using a large-ish dome with a 100 watt night black heat bulb, which I know should be combined with an under heating pad but I haven't gotten to that since I've only had her a week and have already spent over $200 on her things. The night temps USUALLY only get down to about 82-84 in the warm part which I've heard isn't terrible just because they're used to nights being colder than days. From what I can tell, her warm hide stays warm and humid enough because she spends most of her time in there and after I did that, her first shed with me was almost perfect. She shed in there and there was only one little piece I had to help her get off. The rest was solid and I had no eye cap issues.

[RiA MaU]

Also, I am using an Accu-Rite thermometer/hygrometer placed on the bottom of the tank and I usually keep it at the warm side but will move it to the cold side just to check on occasion.

[blue roses]

You are not far from solving the problems of humidity. Get an undertank heater about 1/3 the size of the tank, and a thermostat, set the thermostat till it reads 88 under the warm hide, then put spagnum moss in the warm hide. This will solve the problem. If its still a problem zoomed makes a reptifogger that works really well. I use one cause it gets really dry here on long island in the winter. I put my fogger on a timer to go off every 6 hours, and have never had a bad shed yet, and my guy is over a yearold.

[Mada]

one way to make a tank have good humidity is to place something over the screen a plastic shopping bag or trash bag make sure you have a good area open for air flow though. get a thermometer gun (some pet shops have them also lowes and home depot have them) yes they cost more then your in tank thermometer but they give you specific temperatures of the surfaces not just the ambient air temp in the area of it. and the under tank heater will help more then the lamp will. your lamp is heating the top of the substrate, that heat then bleeds off into the air which will become lighter and that hot air will then leave your tank. the under tank heater will heat up the tank and then penetrate to the substrate and warm it from the bottom up giving it a better over all temp. when you get the temp gun make sure that you push some substrate back away from your hot spot and get both the bottom temp and the surface temp.

you have 3 ranges of temp to monitor the cold side surface, which should be low 80's the hot side (both under and on top) which should be 88-90, and the ambient which you want to have in between. the only reason to keep the lamp would be if your room is cold and you need to heat the ambient while having the hot side a little lower then you would keep it at with out the lamp.

please any one with more information point out anything i am saying that is wrong as i don't want to give bad information but this is what has been explained to me.

[Eric Alan]

Also, I am using an Accu-Rite thermometer/hygrometer placed on the bottom of the tank and I usually keep it at the warm side but will move it to the cold side just to check on occasion.

Sounds good! Once you get your UTH (Under Tank Heater) and thermostat to control it safely, you'll have a much easier time controlling things. Until then, you've been given some excellent advice on how to maintain humidity.

[treaux]

When I had a tank, I found ceramic heating elements to not kill the humidity as bad as a regular heat bulb. I'd get a 100 watt CHE and maybe a smaller dome so you can cover more of the screen top. I also used a thick towel folded over to cover the top and would soak it with water regularly. This helped a lot for humidity. That and an UTH should really help. For individual setups, I like the Ultratherm heat pads from reptile basics. They can be used with a simple on/off thermostat to maintain a good hotspot.

[RiA MaU]

Thanks everyone. Will she be okay for a few weeks until I can afford an under-tank heater? She didn't have a shed issue and she ate fine when I fed her. I just really don't want to mess things up now that I finally have my own snake. She means a lot to me and I got home from work and found her temp at 77 in the warm side again. I'm scared about the constant fluctuations.